Public libraries – you know, if the library hadn’t already been developed (about 4,000 years ago, give or take), and you were proposing a public library system for books right now, you know what would happen?
About half of folks would laugh in your face, and the rest would reach for the tar, feathers and pitchforks. The way things have gone, if you were trying to develop the public library system from scratch right now, you probably couldn’t do it.
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There I was, caught by the title and coming here to read something big – long and detailed. You cheated me off it.
What a copyleftist thing to say. (I jest, you know) =^-^=
is this about Google?
@Tigro: Surprisingly, Google hadn’t actually occurred to me.
@Ritulia: Apparently I’m capable of just a few short words every once in a while. Quite a shock, I know.
@Imnotgoing: Heh. Actually, it’s more copyrightist. Intellectual property rights are particularly interesting compared to regular property rights. More on that later.
I don’t think it’s that far-fetched.
In this parallel universe where public libraries hadn’t been invented, you’d start off with Amazon introducing the Kindle, other websites following suit with similar services. Public domain books would likely have been made freely available as PDFs over P2P networks for quite some time.
Eventually, you’d have widespread access to digital book purchase schemes (at fixed rates per book, probably over iTunes etc.). You’d also get services offering a monthly rate tariff for DRM’d books (along the lines of the netflix model methinx). Sometime after that model proved successful, you’d have someone suggesting government subsidy of such services in order to increase the availability of literary works (that aren’t public domain)- perhaps just intended for students taking English Lit. courses (government subsidised e-Book rental may turn out cheaper than schools needing to budget for the purchase and replacement of reading material).
What happens after that point? I’m not sure. Perhaps the scheme would only remain available to students. Perhaps people would push for it to be made available to the rest of the citizenry. But in essence, you’d have a public library- people (possibly just students/educators) would be able to check out books at no cost to themselves. Granted, it’d be entirely digital, but if someone were to suggest mass purchase of physical media in a time where digital distribution is possibly more environmentally friendly than physical distribution, who’d want to spend money on re-purposing existing buildings or building entirely new ones ?
The article linked to by the article below has been removed, but the discussion remains valid. There are those who actually believe that “libraries are just a form of theft” and work to erode the ability for public libraries to function.
http://holloway.co.nz/blog/2009/09/public-libraries-are-just-a-form-of-theft-brian-edwards/
Your exact question is here: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/if-public-libraries-didnt-exist-could-you-start-one-today/