Libraries can own the Kindle, but who owns the books?

Mathew Ingram at Gigaom reports on one of the catches in Amazon’s plan to allow libraries to lend e-books on the Kindle: Who owns the books? Since preserving our heritage is one of the key value of our libraries but not of Amazon, there are troubling consequences of turning libraries into distribution sites for corporate content.

I have heard a well-known Internet librarian (I’m keeping her/his name confidential because I didn’t ask if I’m allowed to repeat and attribute this idea, although I’m 99% certain this person wouldn’t mind) suggest that the way forward is for libraries to push to be allowed to buy e-books. But apparently buying and owning stuff is a crazy idea in the Age of the LicenseWeb.