Electronic book rentals

Abstract

Architectures and techniques are described to rent electronic books. In particular, a content provider can rent electronic books to individuals for a specified rental term. The individuals may have the option to modify the rental term for an electronic book. The rental term for a particular electronic book may be modified by extending the rental term of the particular electronic book or decreasing the rental term of the particular electronic book. Individuals may also convert the rental of an electronic book to a purchase and a purchase of an electronic book to a rental. In order to rent the electronic books to individuals, the content provider may acquire permission from the publishers of the electronic books. In some cases, the content provider may acquire a pool of time-bound rentable licenses from the publishers to allocate to individuals renting electronic books from the content provider.

1 - 29 . (canceled) 
     
     
         30 . A system comprising:
 at least one processor; and   memory accessible to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions causing the processor to:
 receive from a publisher a plurality of licenses associated with a digital content item, wherein a first license of the plurality of licenses is associated with access to the digital content item; 
 receive a first request from a first client device to borrow the digital content item for a first rental period; 
 associate the first license with the first client device; 
 receive a second request from a second client device to borrow the digital content item for a second rental period; 
 associate a second license from the plurality of licenses with the second client device; 
 send a first payment to the publisher based at least in part on the first license being associated with the first client device; and 
 send a second payment to the publisher based at least in part on the second license being associated with the second client device, wherein the second payment is different than the first payment. 
   
     
     
         31 . The system of  claim 30 , wherein the digital content item is a book, a magazine, a newspaper, a periodical, a journal, a reference material, a telephone book, a textbook, an anthology, an instruction manual, a proceeding of a meeting, a form, a directory, a map, a web page, a music file, an audio book, or a video. 
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 30 , wherein the first license is associated with the first client device for a licensed period of time that is different from the first rental period. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 30 , wherein a value of the first payment is less than a value of the second payment. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 30 , wherein a value of the first payment is greater than a value of the second payment. 
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 30 , the memory storing further instructions causing the processor to:
 receive a request from the first client device to extend the first rental period by an additional period of time; and   send metadata to the first client device indicating permission for the first client device to access the digital content item during the additional period of time.   
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 30 , the memory storing further instructions causing the processor to determine that the rental period has expired. 
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 36 , is the memory storing further instructions causing the processor to cause the first client device to prevent access to the digital content item. 
     
     
         38 . The system of  claim 37 , the memory storing further instructions causing the processor to:
 increase a number of licenses associated with the digital content item that are available to the system based at least in part on the prevention of access to the digital content item on the first client device.   
     
     
         39 . A computer-implemented method under control of one or more computing systems of a content provider configured with specific executable instructions, the method comprising:
 receiving from a publisher a plurality of licenses to access a digital content item, wherein a first license of the plurality of licenses is associated with access to the digital content item for a first period of time and a second license of the plurality of licenses is associated with access to the digital content item for a second period of time;   receiving a request from a client device to borrow the digital content item for a rental period;   associating the first license with the client device; and   decreasing by one a number of licenses available to the content provider to rent out the digital content item.   
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the first period of time is different from the rental period. 
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 39 , further comprising sending a first payment to the publisher from the content provider. 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 41 , further comprising:
 receiving the first license from the client device;   associating the first license with another client device; and   sending a second payment to the publisher from the content provider.   
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 42 , wherein the first payment is different than the second payment. 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 39 , further comprising:
 receiving a request from the client device to extend the rental term;   receiving a return of the first license from the client device; and   associating the second license from the content provider with the first client device, wherein the second period of time is longer than the first period of time.   
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 39 , further comprising:
 receiving a request from the client device to extend the rental term;   determining that a cost of a license to extend the rental term would equal or exceed a cost to purchase the digital content item; and   sending a notification to the client device that provides an option to purchase the digital content item.   
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 39 , further comprising determining that the rental period has ended. 
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 45 , further comprising preventing access to the digital content item on the client device. 
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 47 , further comprising increasing by one the number of licenses that are available to the content provider to rent out the digital content item based at least in part on preventing access to the digital content item on the client device. 
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 45 , further comprising:
 receiving a request from the client device to search at least a portion of the digital content item;   sending a search result to the client device; and   preventing rendering of the digital content item other than the search result on the client device.