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Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

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Re: Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

#21

Post by harshreality »

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #8
bluish29 wrote: post #4

The argument in publishing industry (about papers and textbooks) is that if you cannot afford to buy/rent at the current market value then you still can use a public/university library to get it. This became actually more of a cliché than an argument over time. Now with a significant portion of textbooks (and books in general) become mainly E-books, the industry limited library capabilities and required pay per lend…

If I buy an ebook, can I give it "used" to a library? I would like to, but I don't even know if that's a thing. (Let's assume for the sake of the question that the book I buy is also DRM free.)

In theory, maybe. In practice, no.

In theory, a publisher could sell you an ebook, declare that you own it and can transfer it (like a digital right of first sale) as long as you don't keep a copy.

In practice, it would be a hassle for libraries to verify that permission, so even if you had such a book, they might say thanks but no thanks. Essentially all ebooks are sold under license that each book is for your use only, and no transfers are allowed. Because ebooks are licensed, and not sold complete with a right of first sale, retailers can set whatever conditions they want depending on who they sell to, and the market can't arbitrage. That's why libraries have to pay more for an ebook they're allowed to lend 10 times than you have to pay for the same ebook on Amazon.

Re: Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

#22

Post by Folcon »

perihelions wrote: post #17

[flagged]

I think you're seriously undervaluing what libraries as an institution provide both as one of the few public spaces where people can just be, without having to spend money to justify their presence, alongside being a resource to access knowledge, with people trained in the art of suggesting good or at the very least not terrible resources to start people's inquiry into subjects they aren't familiar with, as well as being a unified voice acting in the public interest, to retain and expand those same offerings.

Re: Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

#23

Post by thaumasiotes »

llm_trw wrote: post #19
bluish29 wrote: post #4

The argument in publishing industry (about papers and textbooks) is that if you cannot afford to buy/rent at the current market value then you still can use a public/university library to get it. This became actually more of a cliché than an argument over time. Now with a significant portion of textbooks (and books in general) become mainly E-books, the industry limited library capabilities and required pay per lend…

>Free market hardly work there. You literally have a government granted monopoly on producing books. How can you even bring in the free market into this?

I mean, the free market is working pretty well.

http://libgen.rs/

The government-granted monopoly, not so much.

Re: Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

#24

Post by snapplebobapple »

bluish29 wrote: post #4

The argument in publishing industry (about papers and textbooks) is that if you cannot afford to buy/rent at the current market value then you still can use a public/university library to get it. This became actually more of a cliché than an argument over time. Now with a significant portion of textbooks (and books in general) become mainly E-books, the industry limited library capabilities and required pay per lend…

Its actually an argument for less regulation. Its the regulation causing the market failure. Cut copyright to a less stupid number like what it was originally 14 years. Make maintaining a copyright for those years contingent on having X % of sales available for free in libraries. We are asking the fundamentally wrong question with copyright, we should not be maximizing monopoly for copyright owners, we should be minimizing market disruption to get a chosen amount of extra creative production

Re: Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

#25

Post by mckn1ght »

perihelions wrote: post #17

[flagged]

You are absolutely right about the searchability aspect. I want a PDF copy of every book I read now (I still prefer to read actually the deadtree copies) so I can find something again later.

But until we can demonstrate that digital libraries can preserve works themselves and access to them for hundreds/thousands of years, I would hesitate to suggest that libraries should be left to die on the vine.

Re: Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

#26

Post by mark_l_watson »

I hope some fair deal is worked out. I am wealthy and splurging on all the audio books (yeah for Libro.fm) and eBooks (yeah for Kobo) that I want, but I still experiment consuming the fine content my local library network has. Great books are available to easily consume with Libby and interesting movies and video content are available with Kanopy.

Libraries can also be a nexus for social events and on site education. Very well worth the tax money. In a world of dehumanizing digital tech, libraries are a human experience.

Re: Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

#27

Post by jonawesomegreen »

codazoda wrote: post #14

I’ve written and self published a few small books, including Publish Your eBook. Maybe we should create an author collaborative where we make our books available to libraries either free or at a more reasonable price. There must be a handful of authors who would be willing to do this and who own enough rights to do so. It sounds like even a few books would help libraries bolster their collections. 1. Publish Your eBo…

I work at a non-profit organization and part of our mission is exactly this. You can find more details here: https://indieauthorproject.com/

Another part of our mission is providing libraries an open source ebook and audiobook reader called Palace. Our project is on GitHub here https://github.com/thepalaceproject.

Re: Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

#28

Post by ses1984 »

snapplebobapple wrote: post #24
bluish29 wrote: post #4

The argument in publishing industry (about papers and textbooks) is that if you cannot afford to buy/rent at the current market value then you still can use a public/university library to get it. This became actually more of a cliché than an argument over time. Now with a significant portion of textbooks (and books in general) become mainly E-books, the industry limited library capabilities and required pay per lend…

Its actually an argument for less regulation. Its the regulation causing the market failure. Cut copyright to a less stupid number like what it was originally 14 years. Make maintaining a copyright for those years contingent on having X % of sales available for free in libraries. We are asking the fundamentally wrong question with copyright, we should not be maximizing monopoly for copyright owners, we should be mini…

>Cut copyright to a less stupid number like what it was originally 14 years. Make maintaining a copyright for those years contingent on having X % of sales available for free in libraries

I’m nitpicking but this isn’t less regulation, it’s different regulation. Some would even say it’s more. You’re reducing a number but adding complexity with the percent sales requirement.

Re: Libraries struggle to afford e-books, seek new laws in fight with publishers

#29

Post by ghaff »

CuriousCosmic wrote: post #13
beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I buy an ebook, can I give it "used" to a library? I would like to, but I don't even know if that's a thing. (Let's assume for the sake of the question that the book I buy is also DRM free.)

For textbooks? No. And nowadays a lot of them also expire after a year since by then the student likely no longer needs it. It's a really gross industry

I would question that you don't need a university textbook after a year. I can't say I remember specific examples but I'm pretty sure I referred to earlier textbooks for later engineering classes.
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