I have used a library since I was 4... but physical media like a paper book and digital media like an ebook are completely different animals. You cannot put physical limitations on distribution of a digital/electronic source, it doesn't work that way.
It is not like you can take a real book and put it in a duplicator and get 500 exact duplicates except by the manufacturer... but you can take an mp3 or ebook file and copy it from on drive to another, copy it to data/music CD, DVD storage, USB drive, and so on... so with the ease of digital media, the library should be able to lend out as many copies as people want them with ZERO wait. Forcing people to wait has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. That is the entire point of digital media, immediate access to the media without delays or need to wait for the physical media.
Does Amazon force people to wait to buy ebooks? Does itunes make people wait to buy music? If they were allowed to sell X number of copies, and wait until they have approval to sell more? NO? Same deal, digital media is immediate and should be available without delay, doesn't matter if it is online, in a store or from a library.
Last edited by screwballl; 01-04-2011 at 02:11 PM.
|