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Originally Posted by Giggleton
So you imagine that the library is not actually purchasing a copy of the ebook but rather a license (for an individual viewer at an individual time?) The reason I get so upset about library holds is that there is no need for them when we are dealing with ebooks. The founding fathers would be outraged if they had to wait for an ebook IMO.
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I can say with certainty that they would not be upset by this at all by libraries only being able to loan out one copy of a book at a time. They are the ones who put copyright into the Constitution. Copyright came about in the first place because of how much easier it had become to copy books with the printing press. There is no way that they would be persuaded that making books even easier to copy would mean they would be OK with copying them as much as you wanted.
A library handing out as many copies at a time as they wished is no different than printing up as many copies as you wish on a printing press. The Founding Fathers are on record as being opposed to people being able to make copies without paying the author - during the period of copyright, of course.
What's next? George Washington opposing false teeth? Sam Adams opposing beer? Ben Franklin opposing kites?
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I doubt they were ever sure they were going to make money on a book, but I agree that the costs for printing were very high back then. Anyway, today printing/uploading is easy once you pay for the tech to do so and making copies is simple.
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They couldn't be sure they were going to make money on a book, but if you had your way, they could be sure they would NOT make any money on a book. The cost of printing doesn't have anything to do with authors being paid. It doesn't make any sense to say "The costs of printing are now eliminated, therefore authors shouldn't be paid."
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A million monkeys uploading to a million different sites will eventually upload the works of Shakespeare or something.
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Not unless they already had it to upload.