Brewster KahleAug 13, 2023

“The permanence of library collections may become a thing of the past,” said Jason Schultz, director of New York University’s Technology Law & Policy Clinic.

“I wish the publishers had not sued, but it demonstrates how important it is that libraries stand firm on buying, preserving and lending the treasures that are books.” -me, Digital Librarian

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/business/media/internet-archive-emergency-lending-library.html

The Case of the Internet Archive vs. Book Publishers

In the pandemic emergency, Brewster Kahle’s Internet Archive freely lent out digital scans of its library. Publishers sued. Owning a book means something different now.

The New York Times
Show threadColes Street PotholeAug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle For folks who don't have access:

"Free vs. expensive is a struggle that plays out continuously against all forms of media and entertainment. Neither side has the upper hand forever, even if it sometimes seems it might.

“The more information is free, the more opportunities for it to be collected, refined, packaged and made expensive,” said Stewart Brand, the technology visionary who first developed the formulation. “The more it is expensive, the more workarounds to make it free."

Show threadColes Street Pothole
@brewsterkahle I once worked for a university press—even with university support, we had to monetize written scholarship to keep the lights on, and it became a nasty business. Today, I work for a nonprofit that publishes scholarship online for free—and we are routinely approached by academic publishers looking to monetize our free content by including it in their course adoptions and charging for it. I am torn.
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Aug 13, 2023 at 4:38pmWeb
Show threadColes Street PotholeAug 13, 2023
@brewsterkahle On the one hand, letting them include our content in their broadly distributed product gets us exposure and brings attention to our writers—the writers themselves almost always wholly support granting permission. On the other hand, monetizing content that is freely available online and pretty much forcing students to pay for it seems like perpetuating a predatory model. No matter which choice we make, there is a downside.
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