Public libraries started appearing in the mid-1800s. At the time, publishers went absolutely berserk: they had been lobbying for the lending of books to become illegal, as reading a book without paying anything first was “stealing”, they argued. As a consequence, they considered private libraries at the time to be hotbeds of crime and robbery. (Those libraries were so-called “subscription libraries”, so they were argued to be for-profit, too.)
British Parliament at the time, unlike today’s politicians, wisely disagreed with the publishing industry lobby – the copyright industry of the time. Instead, they saw the economic value in an educated and cultural populace, and passed a law allowing free public libraries in 1850, so that local libraries were built throughout Britain, where the public could take part of knowledge and culture for free.
In the US context, the founding of public libraries were most famously and substantially supported by Carnegie. A man of “crime and robbery” if there ever was one. When you hear “philanthropist” think “tax evasion”. Not to mention how he came into possession of all that loot in the first place.
I agree with the author’s point broadly but it’s not well made.
Fun fact: When you check a book out of your local public library, the publisher gets a small royalty. I have no insider knowledge but I suspect a similar arrangement is their endgame here.
They already have it set up so that libraries have to pay them a subscription for their digital lending.
What IA were doing was scanning in physical books and then lending one digital copy per physical book scanned.
At least, that’s what they did until the covid lockdowns. Then they temporarily removed the download restriction, and the lawsuit was in response to that.
In case anyone was wondering what TorrentFreak thinks of this whole thing: https://torrentfreak.com/you-cant-defend-public-libraries-and-oppose-file-sharing-150510/
In the US context, the founding of public libraries were most famously and substantially supported by Carnegie. A man of “crime and robbery” if there ever was one. When you hear “philanthropist” think “tax evasion”. Not to mention how he came into possession of all that loot in the first place.
I agree with the author’s point broadly but it’s not well made.
He gave grants around the world. The library in my small UK town was funded by him nearly a hundred years ago.
Fun fact: When you check a book out of your local public library, the publisher gets a small royalty. I have no insider knowledge but I suspect a similar arrangement is their endgame here.
They already have it set up so that libraries have to pay them a subscription for their digital lending.
What IA were doing was scanning in physical books and then lending one digital copy per physical book scanned.
At least, that’s what they did until the covid lockdowns. Then they temporarily removed the download restriction, and the lawsuit was in response to that.
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