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from the today's-borrowers-are-tomorrow's-buyers dept.
In July, Macmillan CEO John Sargent outlined the changes in response to "growing fears that library lending was cannibalizing sales." On September 11, the American Library Association (ALA) started circulating a petition in hopes of pressuring Macmillan to not go through with its plan, which is scheduled to go into effect in November. "To treat libraries as an inferior consumer to the general population, it's the wrong thing to do," said Alan Inouye, director of the Office for Information Technology Policy at the ALA. "Libraries are generally held as amongst the highest esteemed institutions in the community."
"Allowing a library like the Los Angeles Public Library (which serves 18 million people) the same number of initial e-book copies as a rural Vermont library serving 1,200 people smacks of punishment, not support," librarian Jessamyn West wrote on CNN. She also points out that Sargent's claim that apps let people check out books in states and countries where they don't live "betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how public libraries work." There are a few that let you pay for a library card regardless of where you live, but not many. Digital Trends reached out to Macmillan for comment but did not receive a response.
Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/macmillan-e-books-library-waiting-period/
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Monday September 16 2019, @09:04PM (6 children)
This is what is so exasperating about copyright. Our public libraries could go fully digital. Paper has a few advantages, but those are blown away by the advantages of digital. Starting with, digital data is so much more searchable. It takes far less physical space. There's no more bull about returns, no late fines. No having to keep multiple physical copies of popular items, and no more denial because someone else has checked out an item. Many damage scenarios are no longer a problem. All libraries would effectively have everything. Anything that's not on local serves could be downloaded quickly, no more of this weeks long wait for an interlibrary loan.
We have the tech to do all that. But we can't, thanks to copyright law.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday September 16 2019, @09:45PM (2 children)
#1 You can't easily flip through a digital book and find that thing you sort of remember.
#2 The total loss scenario for paper books is much more catastrophic than "sudo rm -r" (Delete All) or just issues with hardware storage media.
#3 I don't need power to access my paper book.
#4 It's really simple to jot down notes in the margin of a book, if that's your thing. Those notes will likely still be there 100 years from now, unless the book gets tossed in the garbage / fire.
#5 https://xkcd.com/2030/ [xkcd.com] Yeah, that essentially applies to everything.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Touché) by bzipitidoo on Monday September 16 2019, @10:55PM (1 child)
#1 If you misremember which book has that thing you sort of remember, the computer can run it down for you a whole lot faster.
#2 True, true.
#3 Yes, yes you do need power. You can't read in the dark; you need light. Might be direct sunlight, but that's definitely power.
#4 Notes can be written down in the margins, you say? Like the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem wasn't, because there wasn't enough room.
#5 How many books has Project Gutenberg lost? None at all?
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday September 17 2019, @01:23AM
pedantry++: Reading a paper book doesn't need artificial power during the daytime.
I was under the impression that Project Gutenberg has had to stop digitizing books as more and more English-speaking countries have extended their copyright terms from the end of the 50th calendar year after the death of the last surviving author to the end of the 70th calendar year after the death of the last surviving author.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Monday September 16 2019, @09:51PM
If libraries didn't already exist, and someone tried to create one today, they'd be sued into oblivion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @02:47AM
I love my (rooted/neutered) e-ink ebook reader, but there is a dark side to them. E.g., Nook sends all your book titles and progress back to the mother ship, even for things you side load.
You can root the nook, and install a firewall, and block all communication with B&N, if you are willing to never get any content from B&N. But, it sucks that nearly everything electronic is treacherous and spying on you, by default.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @09:18AM
It's not just because of copyright law that you can't do that. It is because the maintenance of the current system of production requires that people be paid. The content creators get the minority of that money, but they do get some.
Blow away copyright and you have to have what replaces it. "Oh, we'll just go to private content funding!" will not fill that gap, for the simple reason that if it were more economical to do so that is what would have already happened. Patreon etc. would have already killed the publishing industry if that were the magic bullet to replace it.
Those who educate and inform us deserve to be paid. How do you propose to do that under your model?