Comment by apical_dendrite
9 hours ago
There are a number of significant differences. For one thing, physical libraries have to purchase the books that they own.
9 hours ago
There are a number of significant differences. For one thing, physical libraries have to purchase the books that they own.
> For one thing, physical libraries have to purchase the books that they own.
The books in Anna's Archive (and torrent etc) are from people who purchased them and uploaded it.
Not originally.
Sure, they were initially bought BY the billionaire philanthropists, or were from their private collections. Books were bought on the open or used markets to initially fill these libraries.
And some libraries weren't free. They charged for a library card as a subscription. This was before they were bought into city/state governments. So technically they were making money on loaning books, but it was fed back in to sustain (without tax dollars). Carnegie came in and offered to build and populate books in a library IF the local govt would staff and maintain.
Now, copyright owners have also completely lost the narrative. A book can survive years in a library with only moderate use. But that single book can cost the government-funded library 10x the cost of the real book. And if you want to see a real scam, look at the DRM infested online libraries. Cost the same 10x but they then turn around and say "this internet book can ONLY be rented out 26 times (2 week rental over a year) before you have to buy another virtual copy".
Fuck. That.