So I’m asking my readers to sign this petition.

• Tell Harper Collins Publishers to make ebook readers permanent, not delete books after 26 readers.

It seems that the ‘nice’ marketing folks at Harper Collins are trying to maximize profits by stripping library budgets.  See, libraries know that their users — their town’s citizens — like to read the latest fiction and non-fiction in the latest way.  So they spend tax dollars — money that citizens have paid for the upkeep of the library for the benefit of all — to buy eReaders of various types, and eBooks.

Then Harper Collins decides that libraries have to have special eBooks that self-destruct after twenty-six reads.

This is tantamount to piracy and sabotage.  Cory Doctorow’s column on this in the Guardian is great.  My own analogy? It’s like planting silverfish eggs in the glue of every book that comes from the printers: “We’re sorry.  You bought and paid for this information for the benefit of all citizens, but we’re going to steal that data from all but twenty-six users.”

I spent two hundred bucks on books last month, and I’ll probably spend two hundred more next month (I skimp on groceries, like Desiderius Erasmus).  But Harper Collins and its imprints aren’t getting any money from me this month.

And neither will the publishers who follow this trend.

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