Book People Archive

Crazy idea day!


Dear All

I was considering ways in which the impact of copyright for recent works
might be reduced in the case of e-texts. Would it be feasible legally
I wondered to run old-style public libraries online? The texts would have
to be genuinely deleted from the library when issued, and replaced when
returned so that only one library copy was in existence (obviously the
library might purchase multiple copies).  ( and I think Pay-per-View is
something different, here the copyright would not be owned by the library,
and there is no commercial agreement with the author, merely purchase of
a single copy).To be returned after an agreed term the text would have to
be deleted from the borrower's machine(s) and there would need to be a
mechanism for achieving this. (Software to identify the files, delete locally
and send the original back...technically this transmission is a copying
process I know..but if only one copy is readable at any time, are there
legally multiple copies in existence? ) The text if not returned would
effectively have been stolen from the library. If copied, that would be
an illegal act by the borrower.  Any breach of copyright would not be
the library's responsibility. How would one encourage returns? Well one
might ask readers to subscribe for a year at a time to the library. The
fee would include a deposit equivalent to the cost of a single reasonably
priced book, returnable at the end of the year if all texts had been
returned (or carried forward). Only one text could be borrowed at a time
per fee paid (readers could choose to pay multiple fees). The costs of
running the library would be provided by the fees (and deposits for lost
books). 

The issues seem to me to be...Is it legal?....Can it be done technically?
...Is it attractive to readers to borrow many texts, one at a time per
fee paid, for the price of a book? Is it commercially viable? 

I mentioned pay per view because the immediate thought is..how complicated
in the modern age..why not pay per view etc...but I am trying for something
that meets the requirements of the weird laws (I think them inane and
repressive, but that's just my view) laws we live under which seem to
inhibit all copying unless one owns the copyright, reduces the cost to
the individual of reading copyright texts, and would actually work.

I am sure my thinking is muddled!! It usually is. But I would appreciate
being told why the idea is crazy (politely, please)...or whether anyone
has any alternative ways of beating this system of spiralling greed we
are locking into. 

Thanks. Now I'll go back to translating Ovid's Amores. Thank goodness
so much of the great literature was written by people who weren't driven
by greed and short-termism (and are all long dead!!!!)

Regards to all. 

Tony Kline tonykline@[redacted]

www.tkline.freeserve.co.uk           Ovid and Others

www.tonykline.free-online.co.uk    Dante and Others

www.tonykline.btinternet.co.uk      Zorrilla: Don Juan Tenorio