3 ms·

Thank-you for your first few paragraphs. I am an avid reader and always try to buy new physical books to read to support my favorite authors. The publishers a

Thank-you for your first few paragraphs. I am an avid reader and always try to buy new physical books to read to support my favorite authors. The publishers are overreaching when they try to end reasonable online lending, and it is good to see what individual authors think. For the last two paragraphs, I have to disagree with your conclusion and will try to justify my reasoning. First, have there been any numbers released for how many excess digital copies were lent, for how many books? Does anyone still have access to those uncontrolled copies? Did any of those exceed the total physical copies in their partner libraries' inventories? If the true total loans is limited and never exceeded physical copies, then it's hard to see how this aggregation of potential inventory was any more harmful than controlled lending. Second, publishers and rightsholding corporations have been fighting for their own interests for literal centuries. They cannot be relied upon to strike an appropriate balance of concerns on their own. First it was the authors they stole from. Publishers were the original pirates, and authors had to fight back. Now publishers are stealing from the public, and there is often nobody to fight back on behalf of the public. Corporate cooyright terms now exceed the lifetime of most people. Publishers fight to erode basic fair use. Media companies bully others to build automated extralefsl systems to harass independent producers and reviewers. The balance of power is far too much in the hands of publishers, and the IA and other libraries need support when they try to act as a counterbalance. Finally, this was a very limited duration experent in a very unprecedented time. How can you not support an organization that reaches out to help the disadvantaged during a global pandemic and lockdown? There was no taking from authors. No sales were lost -- people like me will buy books no matter how easy they are to borrow. This was humanirarian work at its digital best.

jawns 6y ago
I appreciate your thoughtful response and want to address a couple of points. I am an author, but I am also an advocate for copyright reform. I would like to see copyright duration changed to something more sensible, such as its pre-1976 length (28 years + optional 28 year renewal). Yet as much as I support copyright reform, I also think it has to be done through legislation, not through the IA deciding the publishers have too much power and thumbing their nose at copyright law. Regarding your assertion, "There was no taking from authors." One thing that I see widespread confusion about, even among educated people, is what gets taken away from authors when copyright is violated. Yes, loss of potential sales is one thing that affects authors when copyright is violated. But beyond that, what actually gets taken away is the right itself. Copyright gives authors the exclusive authority, for a limited time, to publish and reproduce their creative works. If the IA violates copyright, then even if it doesn't take away sales, it still takes away the right itself. It's important to recognize that the intellectual property right has value in itself, outside of how sales are affected. I am all for humanitarian organizations helping people during a pandemic. But IA should do so by lending out things it owns and has a right to lend, rather than lending out things it doesn't own and doesn't have a right to lend.
- ghaff 6y ago
  >such as its pre-1976 length (28 years + optional 28 year renewal). I'm definitely in favor of shorter lengths. Not so much renewal though as it tends to favor big publishers and media companies who are far less likely to forget to renew than some individual or small company is. (That's been one of the big pushbacks against a lot of orphan works proposals. In that case I don't really agree with the content creators but I do get the argument.)
- nitrogen 6y ago
  I am also a creator (software, music, and video). I would also be fine with 28+28 terms, but might argue that software shouldn't get the +28. Ideally all positive change would happen legislatively. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the reality we live in. I've argued in comments on other posts that some laws require visible lawbreaking before legislation changes. In that reality, it's hard to talk about working within the system of existing rules because the rules were placed by unmatchable lobbying. Since those on the other side of the debate lack the capital to overpower those who control the media (control the media and you control the message), some other way is required to get visibility and push for laws to change.
- account42 6y ago
  > But beyond that, what actually gets taken away is the right itself. Copyright gives authors the exclusive authority, for a limited time, to publish and reproduce their creative works. That is a right authors have been granted only in order to encourage the creation of more works so any violation of that "right" should be judged on how it impacts that goal. It also is not really a right given to authors but rather rights taken away from everyone else.

jawns 6y ago

I appreciate your thoughtful response and want to address a couple of points. I am an author, but I am also an advocate for copyright reform. I would like to see copyright duration changed to something more sensible, such as its pre-1976 length (28 years + optional 28 year renewal). Yet as much as I support copyright reform, I also think it has to be done through legislation, not through the IA deciding the publishers have too much power and thumbing their nose at copyright law. Regarding your assertion, "There was no taking from authors." One thing that I see widespread confusion about, even among educated people, is what gets taken away from authors when copyright is violated. Yes, loss of potential sales is one thing that affects authors when copyright is violated. But beyond that, what actually gets taken away is the right itself. Copyright gives authors the exclusive authority, for a limited time, to publish and reproduce their creative works. If the IA violates copyright, then even if it doesn't take away sales, it still takes away the right itself. It's important to recognize that the intellectual property right has value in itself, outside of how sales are affected. I am all for humanitarian organizations helping people during a pandemic. But IA should do so by lending out things it owns and has a right to lend, rather than lending out things it doesn't own and doesn't have a right to lend.

ghaff 6y ago
>such as its pre-1976 length (28 years + optional 28 year renewal). I'm definitely in favor of shorter lengths. Not so much renewal though as it tends to favor big publishers and media companies who are far less likely to forget to renew than some individual or small company is. (That's been one of the big pushbacks against a lot of orphan works proposals. In that case I don't really agree with the content creators but I do get the argument.)
nitrogen 6y ago
I am also a creator (software, music, and video). I would also be fine with 28+28 terms, but might argue that software shouldn't get the +28. Ideally all positive change would happen legislatively. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the reality we live in. I've argued in comments on other posts that some laws require visible lawbreaking before legislation changes. In that reality, it's hard to talk about working within the system of existing rules because the rules were placed by unmatchable lobbying. Since those on the other side of the debate lack the capital to overpower those who control the media (control the media and you control the message), some other way is required to get visibility and push for laws to change.
account42 6y ago
> But beyond that, what actually gets taken away is the right itself. Copyright gives authors the exclusive authority, for a limited time, to publish and reproduce their creative works. That is a right authors have been granted only in order to encourage the creation of more works so any violation of that "right" should be judged on how it impacts that goal. It also is not really a right given to authors but rather rights taken away from everyone else.