Comment by WillAdams

Why are books likely to be lost?

Any decent library has a "last copy" policy where the last copy of a given book/edition is kept in a vault for reference at need.

>Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.

>--- Anne Herbert

Piracy directly interferes with the actual business of publishing books --- I missed out on buying _Traditional Archery from Six Continents_, and the price quickly climbed to 4 digits after it went out of print, so I made arrangements to get the rights and re-print it --- shortly before I picked up the books at the printer someone released a PDF scan of the book --- it took me over 5 years to sell out the print run and get my living room closet back.

Similarly, I'd like to arrange for re-printing J.R.R. Tolkien's _The Old English Exodus_: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Old_English_Exodus but have settled instead for binding a photocopy I was sent the second time I requested it on Interlibrary Loan because a certain archive site is handing it out for free as a poor quality scan.

If folks want books to be free, why not focus on either public domain texts, or authoring new works which have copyleft and similar licenses? Why deny authors their right to control how their work is distributed _and_ what compensation they receive.

I've done a fair bit at wikibooks.org and have put up:

https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-into-3d

and my articles in _TUGboat_ are freely downloadable --- that doesn't give me the right to take texbook.tex, edit it, typset it to a PDF and then pass out that PDF.

Dr. Who episodes are not books. Don't move the goal posts.