Copyright lawyers next target- Public Libraries

[TheSnake]

This is not good....not good at all....someone needs to stop this madness.

[Spanky]

Thats just insanity.

So are they saying that because the library lends without asking for payment that its bad?

But if they charged a fee it wouldn't be?

I have always thought that our under funded libraries should charge a slight fee for borrowing books, I'm just talking 5-10 cents per book per couple weeks.

Our local library is staffed by mostly volunteers, and there is always a couple carts of books that arn't put away cause they can't keep up.

Nor can they usually keep up with hitech stuff.

[skuz]

Everytime I borrow a book, I certainly spend an hour by the xerox copying them...

I pay a yearly fee to go to the library and I can borrow the same book over and over if I want to. Why the hell would I do photocopies ???

[samwichse]

Words fail me.

I am really, truly saddened by this. Books are expensive and not everyone can afford them. The poor should not be allowed to read?

[DiscoLando]

Have these people no scruples?

"Be wary of a man who denies you information - for he dreams himself your master."

[CMonster]

It's just to bad that here in the US our founding fathers didn't think to include the "right to keep, copy, and use information" along with "freedom of the press" and the "right to keep and bear arms."

TheSnake wrote: "This is not good....not good at all....someone needs to stop this madness."

It's being done: Linux -the choice of a GNU generation.

[NoCtrl]

Can you say . . . greed?

Each book in the Library was paid for with taxes and donations. Therefore, unlike Napster, everyone in the community shared in the cost of each book. Librarians do not distribute copies of books. Each book lent out was paid for, in theory, by the person taking the book. As such, the publisher for each book in the Library's archive has been paid. People in the community pay for each book in the library, pay to maintain the library, and pay to purchase more books.

That's why its call a PUBLIC rather than private library. Books are purchased by the public for the community's library. We must be living in a commune. Oh my god. The USA is a big commune. Danger! Danger! Somebody send in the FBI!!!!

[Note: NoCtrl has gone over the edge . . . again.]

:P

[This message has been edited by NoCtrl (edited 07-13-2001).]

[CMonster]

NoCtrl:

Following your ideas (with which I agree) what would stop the same principle from being applied to applications on a server?

If, for example, community taxes paid for a copy of MS Word on an Internet server that was accessible for use by unlimited users (even if regulated to one user at a time) -do you see what I am getting at? Microsoft would have a fit and their lawyers would be on it like <add metaphor>.

I agree with the idea that information should be free but I don't object to paying for nice packaging.

[NoCtrl]

Interesting CMonster, but I think a book in the library is more like a laptop computer than an application on a server. A laptop computer can be used by an unlimited number of people, but only one person can use it at a time. In order to have concurrent access, it is necessary to buy more laptop computers.
In order for two people to read a book at the same time, more than one copy of the book must be purchased. Unless you want to read over my shoulder, but I don't know you that well.

Maybe they should just shake down the library for a percentage of the take on the copier.

[robapacl]

i wouldn't feel quite so antagonistic to these overpaid artists, composers, entertainers etc if it weren't for the fact that most of them are just doing variations on a theme. They're doing nothing original. None of them discovered music, none of them developed the techniques for mass distribution, none of them perfected the language they use. 98% of what they do is based on what they've been given, free of charge, by men like Gutenberg, Beethoven, and the nameless tens of thousands who devloped the infrastructure they've exploited for their own selfish aggrandizement. After they sort out how much they owe their predecessors, they can talk about how much they're owed. Newton said it very well. " If I have seen farther than others, it's because I stood on the shoulders of giants." In fact, most of the whiners are pygmies.

[OpnPodBayHal]

Publishers are running scared! This is their last gasp as they try to hang onto an obsolete business model.

Consider the fact that ebooks could be copied in seconds or that an electronic library (web site) could distribute an infinite number of copies, having bought only one.

Personally, I would like to see the royalties paid to the arthur on each copy (let's see that's about 2 cents, right?) but since these copies aren't costing the publisher anything (except lost sales) screw 'em.
Hey, the internet has made electronic copies free. Deal with it!

[Jonty]

In fact a record is kept of the number of times a book has been borrowed over the year and a royalty payment is sent to the publisher/author accordingly, so I don't see what the problem is!

[skatman]

Why are you peeps so worries?
Information is free and will always be free.
Sure, if you're an idiot, you'll go and buy your Office XP at Best Buy... but if you're a little smart, you'll download it off something like Gnutella... prehacked and ready to roll.
Hell, WinXP RC1 was cracked before officially was available for download. Hahaha.
In the world of computers and digital media the only laws powerful enough to hold are that of nature! And no lawyer can do a **** thing about it!

[CMonster]

I think it is very important to remind everyone at this point that Sysopt and its affiliates do not advocate piracy in any form.

[skatman]

CMoster,
since you're such an expert on "Sysopt and its affiliates" PR, could you tell me their policy on the subject of traveling salesman problem?



[This message has been edited by skatman (edited 07-15-2001).]