Several of the world’s biggest book publishers are suing to shut down ALL libraries’ last option to own and preserve digital books. Instead, they want libraries pay high licensing fees to “rent” books from big tech vendors that regard your personal privacy as a premium feature and are vulnerable to censorship from book banners.
Today, most digital books can only be licensed, meaning there is effectively only one copy of a digital book and it can be edited or deleted at any time with zero transparency. In this scenario, profit-motivated big publishing shareholders for companies like Newscorp, Amazon, and Disney are in control of whether a book is censored or not.
If successful, this lawsuit by Big Media who spends millions every year on lobbying and PR will act as gatekeepers. They can prevent the free flow of information and undermine libraries’ ability to serve their patrons.
It is important that libraries actually own digital books, so that thousands of librarians all can independently preserve the files of important books. This kind of decentralized curation makes books more resilient to censorship, keeping them available to the public and unaltered.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.