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> Controlled Digital Lending is a respectful and balanced way to bring our print collections to digital learners. A physical book, once digital, is available to
by avemilia 6y ago
> Controlled Digital Lending is a respectful and balanced way to bring our print collections to digital learners. A physical book, once digital, is available to only one reader at a time.
I never understood this "lending" practice. Can somebody explain? Sounds like obscurantism to me. So, if there is only one digitally scanned copy of an old book, only one person on planet Earth can borrow it? Because I remember a few times when I clicked on some document in IA and it said I couldn't read it "because it was borrowed".
- aw1621107 6y agoMy impression was that "lending" digital copies this way is less likely to upset publishers, since it's more or less analogous to the already-acceptable practice of checking out physical books from a library. Allowing an arbitrary number of simultaneous readers would take better advantage of the digital format, but is much more likely to attract a lawsuit.
- rocqua 6y agoIt is using the existing carve out for library book lending in the physical world, and applying it to the digital world. So if the book is old enough to not be covered by copyright, they can distribute as many copies as the want. Otherwise, in order to use the library carve-out, they need to limit it to the number of physical copies taken out of circulation in actual libraries.