March 5, 2012 07:02 am EDT

Random House drastically raises the price of e-books for libraries

Oddly, Random House deciding to triple the price of its e-books for libraries is being considered a compromise. While others, like Penguin, are pulling their electronic tomes from the virtual shelves of our lending institutions, Random House is at least willing to still play ball -- even if it's making its wares prohibitively expensive. Now titles from the company start at $25, with many popular books going for more than $100, though, releases are available on day one and wont have an expiration date. Obviously, the fact that e-books can be pirated and never need to be replaced as their pages tear or bindings wear down is of concern to publishers that are losing out on a continuous stream of revenue. However, many of our libraries are underfunded and will likely balk at the new sky high prices. But, we suppose, a higher one-time cost is easier to swallow than an annual licensing fee.

Random House drastically raises the price of e-books for libraries originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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