3 ms·

...isn't that just piracy? I'd much rather have public libraries come to a reasonable agreement with publishers.

einpoklum 7y ago
Arrr! Surreder yer eBooks, ye landlubber, or ya throat 'l taste the blade o'me cutlass!
zozbot234 7y ago
It's not "just" piracy, it also makes DRM-free versions of the content available. Which is something that libraries should be insisting on as well in any "reasonable" agreement, given their archival function. If they can't achieve that, I'd rather they not "buy" any eBooks at all, and just stick to paper.
ImaCake 7y ago
Yes. I tend to avoid it with ebooks. But textbooks are fair game because of how predatory the buisness model is. Piracy gives people a choice where there would otherwise be a monopoly.
Asooka 7y ago
Publishers will never give up on DRM, so I don't see a point in involving them. A modern day electronic library would look something like Bandcamp - pay what you want for DRM free copy of the book. The whole raison d'etre of libraries is to keep physical books, but once you go digital, there's no point to making a difference between a shop and a library. Perhaps the one concession I could make is to have the library provide a remote access system where you can log in and view books, but anything that manufactures digital scarcity is repugnant.
- zozbot234 7y ago
  > Publishers will never give up on DRM Says who? There are markets today where DRM-free content is widely available, such as recorded music. DRM-free ebooks are an interesting possibility especially for the "long tail" of content that normally would see very few sales or even go out of print entirely. We just have to make it clear that DRM-unencumbered content is valuable to us, and we expect it.
  - acomjean 7y ago
    Looking at tech publisher: Oreilly tried selling drm free books. They gave up, and went subscription only (you can buy drm books of theirs through other services). Manning still has drm free books (though they insert your name into each page, which is a neat trick)

Arrr! Surreder yer eBooks, ye landlubber, or ya throat 'l taste the blade o'me cutlass!

It's not "just" piracy, it also makes DRM-free versions of the content available. Which is something that libraries should be insisting on as well in any "reasonable" agreement, given their archival function. If they can't achieve that, I'd rather they not "buy" any eBooks at all, and just stick to paper.

ImaCake 7y ago

Yes. I tend to avoid it with ebooks. But textbooks are fair game because of how predatory the buisness model is. Piracy gives people a choice where there would otherwise be a monopoly.

Asooka 7y ago

Publishers will never give up on DRM, so I don't see a point in involving them. A modern day electronic library would look something like Bandcamp - pay what you want for DRM free copy of the book. The whole raison d'etre of libraries is to keep physical books, but once you go digital, there's no point to making a difference between a shop and a library. Perhaps the one concession I could make is to have the library provide a remote access system where you can log in and view books, but anything that manufactures digital scarcity is repugnant.

zozbot234 7y ago
> Publishers will never give up on DRM Says who? There are markets today where DRM-free content is widely available, such as recorded music. DRM-free ebooks are an interesting possibility especially for the "long tail" of content that normally would see very few sales or even go out of print entirely. We just have to make it clear that DRM-unencumbered content is valuable to us, and we expect it.
- acomjean 7y ago
  Looking at tech publisher: Oreilly tried selling drm free books. They gave up, and went subscription only (you can buy drm books of theirs through other services). Manning still has drm free books (though they insert your name into each page, which is a neat trick)