Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Libraries Do Not Need Permission To Lend Books

Medium – Fair Use, First Sale, and the Fallacy of Licensing Culture: “Licensing culture is out of control. This has never been clearer than during this time when hundreds of millions of books and media that were purchased by libraries, archives, and other cultural intuitions have become inaccessible due to COVID-19 closures or, worse, are closed off further by restrictive licensing. And, many of us have watched as librarians, educators, parents, and students have questioned (and battled) over to right to read books aloud online to schoolchildren or to stream movies or music for our new online “classroom” environment. We have also heard about resistance to emergency or temporary digital libraries to increase access to the materials needed for education and research during this pandemic. The answer to these questions coming from vendors, publishers, and now, the U.S. Copyright Office, appears to be singular: more licensing. This answer threatens the purpose, values, and mission of libraries and archives in the United States. It undermines the ability of the public (taxpayers!) to access the materials purchased with their money for their use in public libraries and state institutions, and further, it is short sighted, and not in the best interest of library patrons or the public at large…”

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.