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I wouldn't read too much into what the UK law says - it's mostly totally ignored in this respect:everybody passes books on and we still have a thriving second-h

by sambeau 15y ago

I wouldn't read too much into what the UK law says - it's mostly totally ignored in this respect:everybody passes books on and we still have a thriving second-hand book market (albeit one mostly funded by the sale of coffee). I've seen no evidence that the US has vastly superior public libraries to the UK: all UK cities have a large, comprehensive (non-lending) public library often built by Carnegie. Our local lending Libraries, however, are struggling here due to cuts in government funding - nothing to do with these copyright laws as far as I can tell.

SwellJoe 15y ago
Our local lending Libraries, however, are struggling here due to cuts in government funding - nothing to do with these copyright laws as far as I can tell. 5.9p per loan aggregated over millions of loaned books a year is a sizable chunk of change. Funding wouldn't need to be as large without those fees (which is why I suggested "all other things being equal. Of course all other things are not equal"). I'm just saying that without those fees, UK libraries would almost certainly be better. How much better? I dunno. Depends on how much the culture values libraries. US culture, despite having an anti-intellectualism bias in many areas, takes its libraries pretty darned seriously and tends to fund them reasonably well (though I'm sure more would be welcome, and many small towns don't have sufficient library resources), and most rights holders don't get to view libraries as a recurring revenue stream.
- sambeau 15y ago
  5.9p per loan aggregated over millions of loaned books a year is a sizable chunk of change £7.6 million according to the article. (interesting to note that as the U.S. is not a member of the PLR club, American authors will get none of it) By comparison the British Library (the UK's biggest public library)'s budget is £142million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Library http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Library

by sambeau 15y ago

SwellJoe 15y ago

Our local lending Libraries, however, are struggling here due to cuts in government funding - nothing to do with these copyright laws as far as I can tell. 5.9p per loan aggregated over millions of loaned books a year is a sizable chunk of change. Funding wouldn't need to be as large without those fees (which is why I suggested "all other things being equal. Of course all other things are not equal"). I'm just saying that without those fees, UK libraries would almost certainly be better. How much better? I dunno. Depends on how much the culture values libraries. US culture, despite having an anti-intellectualism bias in many areas, takes its libraries pretty darned seriously and tends to fund them reasonably well (though I'm sure more would be welcome, and many small towns don't have sufficient library resources), and most rights holders don't get to view libraries as a recurring revenue stream.

sambeau 15y ago
5.9p per loan aggregated over millions of loaned books a year is a sizable chunk of change £7.6 million according to the article. (interesting to note that as the U.S. is not a member of the PLR club, American authors will get none of it) By comparison the British Library (the UK's biggest public library)'s budget is £142million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Library http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Library