Library Startup ‘Briet’ Wants to Revolutionize E-Book Sales, Not Licensing

"With publishers and libraries at odds over e-book licensing’s long-term expense, hold times, and ethical concerns, a new platform called Briet is pursuing an open-access approach. Briet invites publishers to sell their e-books to libraries outright, providing universal, perpetual access. Several independent publishers including PM Press, Punctum, Sideshow, and Silver Sprocket are on board.... 

Briet (rhymes with plié) is named after, and an homage to, the late French librarian Suzanne Briet. Notably, the open platform arose not long after judges decided in favor of publishers in a lawsuit against the Internet Archive, determining that the IA’s scanning of copyright-protected print materials and lending of the digital copies constituted copyright infringement and was not fair use as the IA contended...."