Newsletter: The recent Second Circuit decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is only the latest battle in the war on libraries and the freedom to read.

https://www.citationneeded.news/hachette-v-internet-archive/

#InternetArchive #HachettevInternetArchive #libraries #newsletter #CitationNeeded

Big publishers think libraries are the enemy

The recent Second Circuit decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is only the latest battle in the war on libraries and the freedom to read.

Citation Needed
My beliefs are simple, and hardly radical: Libraries are critical infrastructure. Access to information is a human right. When you buy a book you should truly own it. When a library buys a book, they should be able to lend it. Readers should be able to read without any third parties spying over their shoulders, or preventing them from accessing the materials they have legally obtained.
@molly0xfff @vmstan I would like to add “libraries should be able to buy ebooks” to the list. The current licensing scheme is abhorrent.
@molly0xfff you know you live in interesting times when your beliefs are slowly becoming more radical, without even changing.
@molly0xfff The law needs to change.

@molly0xfff I always thought communities should be built around libraries as well as a gym that's also free to the public. Having a place to learn and play uninhibited by the burden of cost would do so much for a community.

I went to the library in the middle of the summer and saw a bunch of teens playing Minecraft and Fortnite on the computers, reading graphic novels and books. It was awesome. If you want kids to be safe, then have infrastructure to keep them safe

@squizzleflip @molly0xfff in Taiwan a lot of neighborhoods are centered around a temple with a day market and the larger ones would have the night markets.
@molly0xfff Definitely right. Anyone should be able to buy and read any book, this is human right.
It is in the meantime unbelievable that books are banned in many states. In Florida, Anne Frank is banned. It is incomprehensible in 2024 to ban a book pointing out the inhumanity of national socialism.
What is the difference between banning and burning books.

@horen @molly0xfff I hadn't heard about this before and all I'm finding online is that one highschool in Florida removed a graphic novel of Anne Frank from its library.

Are you talking about something different?

@molly0xfff

We can't have that kind of sane and reasonable opinion here. This is the Internet, where all must be rage and tears!

But seriously, I love libraries too

@molly0xfff @ehud These are my beliefs, too. I don’t know any author who would disagree with one word. Please don’t fall for the ridiculous calumny that authors are somehow enemies of libraries. No one loves (or NEEDS) libraries more than authors do.

@gleick really, James? I recall you having been quite library hostile previously.
https://zirk.us/@JamesGleick/109688146386431708

@molly0xfff @ehud

James Gleick (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] My own books have been repeatedly made available for download in their “digital library.” They are not a library, and they don’t have the right.

zirkus
@osma If I say that I love liberal democracy and that Victor Orban’s Hungary does not qualify as a liberal democracy, that does not make me “quite democracy hostile.”

@molly0xfff

It’s very important to highlight how new copyright law and intellectual property is in the big picture. They were introduced as exceptions to the norm that were necessary for one specific purpose or another, but have now been perverted: aggressively and avariciously expanded to be the new norm, with libraries and the like painted as exceptions - often as unnecessary or disposable exceptions.

Access to information *is* a human right.

@molly0xfff there are few things I dread more than having my OPAC send me to a janky e-book site that makes me read a book in awkward units as opposed to letting me download a PDF I can view on my tablet when I'm riding the bus
@molly0xfff The last time I was in my home town, the library had BBC Micro:bits available to tinker with.
@molly0xfff One of my earliest memories is sitting on the floor in the kid's section with Teddy and the Ice Cream Truck. The library at college was far more enlightening than all of the lectures combined. Decades later, between homes & jobs, living in a pickup camper with wife & young son I found my dream job using the library's free computers. Can't imagine where or who I'd be without them.

@molly0xfff and the same equally applies to all other forms of media, imo

when you buy a movie/video game you should truly own it & be able to use it without third parties spying on you or preventing you from accessing it.

@molly0xfff Agree libraries are essential. Ours provides daytime shelter, restrooms, drinking water, computer access and books, videos, music. I buy paper books rather than ebooks so I actually own the book, not just a license, that I can share as I wish.
@molly0xfff I cannot even understand how there are people who disagree with any of that.
@molly0xfff "The right to read" by R. Stallman, 1997: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html
The Right to Read - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation

@chluehr @molly0xfff we shouldn’t be quoting RS in this day and age anymore. ✌️
@molly0xfff If I buy a thing, and then I'm told "ah but you don't actually own that thing", I'm taking it and anything else I can get my hands on.