Scanning and providing access to digital copies of books was the dumb move---without that, they would not have attracted the enmity of publishers. The fastest and most successful way to avoid the destruction of an organization is always to concede to the wishes of its enemies. Preemptively, if possible.
They’re a DRM encumbered pile of JPEGs. The ebooks available at a local library via OverDrive are Kindle ebooks with all the searching and bookmarking enabled.
The ones I've seen could be downloaded as ordinary .PDFs if you select that option in the menu.
I've contributed heavily to IA in the past and would never stick up for traditional publishing in a fight like this one. But turning themselves into a modern-day Pirate Bay was a suicidal tactic on their part. I can only hope they're playing some kind of long game that outsiders can't yet appreciate.
