Librarians Boycott HarperCollins Over E-Books

Librarians Boycott HarperCollins Over E-Books

abcnews.go.com

...llibrarians across the country have banded together to boycott HarperCollins after the publisher decided it would limit the number of times an e-book can be checked out.

Under a new policy started Monday, HarperCollins will allow libraries lend out a digital version of a book just 26 times before the license expires. After that, the libraries must pay to lease the e-book again...librarians have taken to the Web in protest, saying the plan will ultimately bring libraries to their knees.

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Librarians...dead tree publisher...I can hear the yawns even as I type. Why should you care about a spat between a few librarians with their danders up and a fusty "old media" name?

Because the dispute raises all kinds of issues the longer you think about it. Libraries have always been beacons of freedom and knowledge.. and long before there was an Interent, the fountain of free info was the nearest library for most folks. But what significance do these institutions have in an age of shriviling budgets and general information overload? How can/should they react to/with the Internet? Is HarperCollins being unfair, or only trying to make a profit in an era where printers fear going the way of dinosaurs?

Amid the dusty shelves, is a battle flag quietly but significantly unfurling for the next salvo in the onglong war between old and new media? Or should it perhaps be seen as a battle for the control of information, freedom of information, and the "soul" of both the Internet and the Library? The Library, the Internet, and the publishers each represent a different way of dealing with questions of freedom, money, and infomation. Can they find a way to live with each other? And when the dust settles, will our lives have changed?

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is very unfortunate and sad if you ask me. Here in Pittsburgh our County Library system (like many others across the US ) has been shrinking and shrinking for sometime with no help coming and only a sad demise in the cards.

While true what HarperCollins is doing seems crappy, at the end of the day I guess its business as usual. Sad that all of these great institutions of knowledge are going by the way side and it seems that many folk in position to aid/assist care nowt.

What bothers me even more so than the whole e-book thing is, When the libraries and the booksellers go under (which seems sooner rather than later), how will they go about regulating the books people search for, dl and even more so how will they decide which books even get transfered into e format. I mean I know this is the way of the future but somehow stuff like this comes to mind.

www.historyplace.com...

That is all.

Libraries are as sacred as an atheistic person like me can have as sacred.

A place where our forefathers (Carnegie in particular is a good recent name) turned their profits into community ventures granting access to free information. Lots of very important people, born into poverty, used the library as the exclusive means to bolster their knowledge and gain insight into situations.

All the way from Alexandria to mobile libraries children, teenagers and adults have found a quiet place to focus their minds on tasks or hobbies which have their interest. The beta version of the internet, libraries were holy ground for those who sought to find the truth.

To my mind the internet is the next extension of the library. It's natural successor. It's a lot more rowdy and is filled with lots of useless information but part of learning how to learn is how wisdom is achieved. Piracy is the new library and it's here to stay - especially when old media companies try to put a clamp upon it.

I've no issue with someone being awarded financially reward for their efforts in a subject. I used to own many first editions and hardbacks just because a particular book or author was special to me. However the Victorian era of enlightenment for the masses seems to have passed by. Museums in the US charge for entry (apart from the odd day). Parks are being eaten up by condos and unions are all but in the pockets of shareholders.

The death of the library is a sad, but inevitable one. I hope that copyright laws change to lessen the length of time licenses are retained so that knowledge can be shared freely and legally - but it's not likely to happen in the current climate and educated people are dangerous to those who perceive themselves as having power.

Piracy is the only morale course to take for this point in time. That and new media. Freely given outlooks and works of art which strike us where we are most vulnerable. Through this other revenue avenues will open up and a new balance will be found. But unless old media stops it's suicidal attack on the gifts given to us by those who cared for future generations it's going to have many more causalities and we'll soon be discussing the concept of libraries whilst sitting in one drinking coffee and buying our books on our Kindles.

These librarians are fighting the good fight - but they will lose, which is a real dying shame.

-m0r

I think that harper collins is the eventual loser here.

They are trying to find a way to "re-sale" a book over and over. They could never have done this with paper texts. But they have to try this on the web, because a lot of people will borrow it once, make a bootleg copy and never need to borrow it again. Additionally, they will give a copy to their friends when they recommend reading it.

Harper Collins et al used to charge a legitmate fee for producing paper books. Now that they are producing "invisible" and "intangible" books, they cannot find a way to charge for it.

So, they are taking it out on libraries.

Not the sign of a profitable industry.