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If the book is freely available from a library does it really matter if you find it more convenient to get it by pirating?

• mirimir 7y ago
  Sure, but libraries must buy books to loan. For physical books, there's only one concurrent user. And for ebooks, licenses specify allowed numbers of concurrent users. But still, that is an interesting argument. So why aren't libraries considered to be pirating?
  • Broken_Hippo 7y ago
    IIRC, there have been that claim: Libraries, of course, were going to put book publishers out of business because all of their patrons were reading books they otherwise would have purchased. We simply don't hear of this pushback much anymore and we more see it as a public good - though not always good enough to fund them properly or make sure everyone has access to one for free.
    • jhbadger 7y ago
      It's more complicated than that; in the 19th century when libraries (at the time mostly subscription ones akin to a Victorian Netflix) were the primary purchasers of books rather than individuals, novels were extremely expensive -- the typical novel at the time was a rambling 1000+ page affair taking up three volumes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-volume_novel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-volume_novel) and cost over 30 shillings. That's like £150 or $200 today! It was the decline of the subscription library that forced publishers to sell books to individuals at a more reasonable price and eventually invent the idea of the paperback