first sale – rogue librarian knowledge
Regarding the continued availability of knowledge and publications:
With a hard copy, a library can be reasonably sure that the object will be available ten, twenty, sometimes one hundred years from now. With a digital copy, a library “owns” the object as long as the vendor makes it available.In his new article, Owning the Future: Looting the Library, Seth Shulman points out that libraries have the hard copy security described above because of the first-sale doctrine. This legal precept allows libraries to archive and make available materials they have purchased.
Now, Patricia Schroeder, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, is working to prevent libraries from extending this doctrine to digital publications. This is just one of the bad things she is up to…
Computers may encourage sharing, but combined with greed they can become tools of selfishness.
17 September 2002, 13:59 ::
commenting closed for this article