[axel77]

Often when reading posts on mobileread.com I wonder how the library can survive in the next century. That is, if electronics will wash away our right to borrow books for free from our local library or if they don't.

How will the library of the future look like?

Will it be a place, where I can "borrow" files, and some technology magic will hinder me to copy it to be used for an extended time period if not "bought"? Can such technique really exist resisting all possible kinds of hacking it?

Will it be a place where I can go to, to view electronic books on the devices there? And forfeit our rights to borrow "books"?

Will copyright which bases on actually *selling* books beyond the use in a library fail in the long run and have to be replaced by other social organization and remunerations inventions?

Or albeit all developments on the eInk front paper still dominate the next century as it did the last millennium? So the other questions don't arise.

I for one think it are not only authors and publishers which have to be aware of the future, but also consuments. Since there is not only to gain for us here. If we are not careful, our longtime established right to borrow books for almost free at a place called "public library" might also be washed away by an unfortunate path of change.