Because the authors get paid from it, at least in some countries, like the UK. Same as libraries buy physical books, so the digital limits are imposed to mimic that, iirc.
every year my library needs to apportion a larger share of the books and materials budget to digital resources. Part of this owes to increasing patron demand, and part is due to price increases. DRM isn’t cheap. 📚
Ohhh... I assumed they had a certain number of licences ("copies") of each e-book that could be used at a time at a flat fee. I didn't realize it was a per-use fee!
I hate DRM, especially for media "purchases" vs subscriptions. At least with subscriptions it's clear that you're paying for access & don't actually own anything.
It's different in academic libraries. We pay only once for a perpetual license that allows a certain number of simultaneous users (one, three, unlimited, or unlimited but max of 365/year). It's atrocious that they do this to public libraries.
Ok, Thanks for clarifying! Based on the other responses, I was beginning to wonder if you were speaking generally about libraries having to pay & I just read too much into it.
Comments
Some were very generous with their licensing. Others were right bastards.
Though, my guess with how DRM has been going, they all became right bastards in the end.
The profit motive really ruins everything good about modern technology.