The past 48 hours I have seen good authors and the authors guild arguing to shut down the ability for libraries to lend books, because it takes money out of the pockets of authors, so...
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Replying to @soc_lee
I would say far worse than piracy. Libraries give benefit to the communities. To shut them down over profit margins is far worse than losing profit from illegal downloads, because it hurts society as a whole. Would be casting out the baby with the bathwater, to use a metaphor.
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Replying to @downix
For sure. Libraries are the thin line between civilization and barbarity, paraphrase
@neilhimself . Hey, @DrunkestLibrary , how are authors supported by libraries? My research gets mixed results. I will buy a series after checking the first book out.1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes -
Replying to @soc_lee @neilhimself
That is a good question. I admit I am curious as well.
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The issue is that the price of buying a physical book to lend in circulation and the price of an ebook lending license are different - the latter is much higher - because an ebook can be lent many more times to many more people than one physical book and depresses sales more
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Replying to @arthur_affect @downix and
Especially since, no matter what restrictions you slap on ebook lending, it's much easier for an ordinary person with a computer to crack your DRM and rip the file than it is to physically scan a physical book, so the piracy risk is higher
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Replying to @arthur_affect @downix and
It may seem like an arbitrary distinction to you but arguing that restrictive terms on ebook lending means you don't want libraries to exist at all because ebooks and physical books are "the same thing" is disingenuous as hell
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I am pointing out the logical conclusion within a legal dispute for the argument made. The intent may not be that, but it can be argued successfully that would be the result of the argument that was made. (Although this is more due to how poor the copyright laws are written)
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You can justify it however you want but you know that arguing that the Authors Guild wants all physical libraries shut down is bullshit Even if they wanted all ebook lending shut down (which they don't) that wouldn't be the same as a wanting all physical lending shut down
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It's really obnoxious that copyleft activists play this "So what you're saying..." card, trying to own people with their own logic
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Replying to @arthur_affect @downix and
No, skeptics about expansive "fair use" online do not "logically" want fair use as it's existed for decades in the meatspace world shut down The whole reason we're in this situation is that digital sharing works fundamentally differently than physical sharing
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Quite true. My concern is that the arguments being made fundamentally seem driven by bad assumptions. I can see how bad assumptions can result in very bad outcomes in such disputes, so I am putting forth the worst case scenario to hopefully get people to pay attention.
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