Libraries are based on a principle called the 'doctrine of first sale'. What that says, specifically, is that if you buy something, it's yours, and you can do what you want with it, for example, lend it to others. This is also how the Internet Archive (IA) set up its digital lending service. It would obtain a book legally, and then let people view it online. One person at a time, just like a physical book, It was a library; I used it myself, fairly often. During the pandemic, however, when people could not get out to physical libraries, IA removed the 'one reader at a time' limit, to make up for that deficit. This is what set off the lawsuit the publishers won last week in a lower court. " Any 'alleged benefits' from the Archive's lending, Judge Koeltl wrote, 'cannot outweigh the market harm to the publishers.'" We san see the arguments from both sides in this case, but the main purpose of the lawsuit seems to be to end the concept of digital lending altogether. It's part of a wider battle, I think, over whether we can own digital things, or only lease them.
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