Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
I think we should get a class action lawsuit again the eBook publishers with these sorts of terms. They are calling us criminals without any proof at all.
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I don't recall being called a criminal personally. Maybe you can find an indiscreet publishing executive who once said that people who borrow library eBooks are a bunch of criminals. Can you? And if you can, are there enough saying that to really justify claiming that "they" say it.
As for "these sorts of terms," they should charge what the market will bear.
eBooks are worth more than paper to the library because the ancillary costs are so much less. Consider just the construction costs of the library. The new million book library in Birmingham cost
over US$300 million to build, or around $304 per book. Even if we assume half the library consists of non-literature space, such as videos, music, and public meeting rooms, it still cost $150 in initial construction cost to house a book. I don't know about Britain, but in the US, double that for debt service. As for what happens after the bonds are paid off, then it is time for major renovations. Plus there is the cost of staffing the library.
If the library, in the long term, will only need half the land due to eBooks, the other half can be sold to a business which will bring in property tax revenue.
Reading is not life and death.
High prices for food and medical care are IMHO socially irresponsible, because those are life and death.* High price for books? No.
The last two books I finished were paper library books. The libraries should consider all the financial ramifications in their decisions, as should publishers. And since book publishers are still fairly profitable by non-tech-industry standards, I suspect they are.
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* P.S. On second thought, I'm not even sure about this. If there is widespread starvation, it might be wrong to run a luxury restaurant, but that's not true in most countries today. And expensive medical care might be justified if the profits are plowed back into research. But in any event, the case for price restraint is far greater with food and medical care than books.