University Libraries Offer Online 'Lending' of Scanned In-Copyright Books (arstechnica.com) 38
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The coronavirus crisis has forced the closure of libraries around the world, depriving the public of access to millions of printed books. Books old enough to be in the public domain may be available for free download online. Many recent books are available to borrow in e-book form. But there are many other books -- especially those published in the mid-to-late 20th century -- that are hard to access without going to a physical library. A consortium of university libraries called HathiTrust recently announced a solution to this problem, called the Emergency Temporary Access Service. It allows participating HathiTrust member libraries to offer their patrons digital scans of books that they can "check out" and read online.
HathiTrust has a history of pushing the boundaries of copyright. It was the defendant in a landmark 2014 ruling that established the legality of library book scanning. At the time, HathiTrust was only allowing people with print disabilities to access the full text of scanned books. Now HathiTrust is expanding access to more people -- though still with significant limits. The program is only available to patrons of member libraries like the Cornell library. Libraries can only "lend" as many copies of the book as it has physical copies on its shelves. Loans last for an hour and are automatically renewed if a patron is still viewing a book at the hour's end. If you want to read a book that's currently in use by another patron, you have to wait until they're finished. The service differs from the Internet Archive's National Emergency Library in that it limits the "lending" of copies to how many physical copies there are available on its shelves. "During the pandemic, the Internet Archive isn't limiting the number of people who can 'borrow' a book simultaneously," reports Ars.
"Cornell University legal scholar James Grimmelmann tells Ars that the limits on the HathiTrust program will put the group in a stronger position if it is ever challenged in court," the report adds. "The same fair use doctrine that allows HathiTrust to scan books in the first place might also justify what the organization is doing now -- though that's far from certain."
HathiTrust has a history of pushing the boundaries of copyright. It was the defendant in a landmark 2014 ruling that established the legality of library book scanning. At the time, HathiTrust was only allowing people with print disabilities to access the full text of scanned books. Now HathiTrust is expanding access to more people -- though still with significant limits. The program is only available to patrons of member libraries like the Cornell library. Libraries can only "lend" as many copies of the book as it has physical copies on its shelves. Loans last for an hour and are automatically renewed if a patron is still viewing a book at the hour's end. If you want to read a book that's currently in use by another patron, you have to wait until they're finished. The service differs from the Internet Archive's National Emergency Library in that it limits the "lending" of copies to how many physical copies there are available on its shelves. "During the pandemic, the Internet Archive isn't limiting the number of people who can 'borrow' a book simultaneously," reports Ars.
"Cornell University legal scholar James Grimmelmann tells Ars that the limits on the HathiTrust program will put the group in a stronger position if it is ever challenged in court," the report adds. "The same fair use doctrine that allows HathiTrust to scan books in the first place might also justify what the organization is doing now -- though that's far from certain."
This is some Douglas Adams shit (Score:5, Funny)
Copyrigh Holder "Err, what?"
L "Well, see we have a physical copy of your book, here."
CH "Err, yes, I can see that."
L "And we can lend this copy out to people."
CH (Feeling unhappy) "I... suppose."
L "Right then. Well if we keep the physical copy, then instead, we can lend out a digital copy, of said said book, and it will be just the same as lending out the physical copy, as long as we don't actually lend out that physical copy."
CH (very confused and unhappy) "Err..."
L "Look it's very simple. We can lend out as many copies of a book as we actually have."
CH (optimistic that things are making sense again) "Yes?"
L "So, if we both just take it as writ, that we do in fact have a number of physical copies of this book on hand, then whether or not we lend them out physically or digitally makes no difference!"
CH (totally lost, feeling faintly like crying) "I... I think I need to see my lawyer about this."
L "Now now, that will cost money. Whereas with my scheme you'll be given money."
CH (brightening at the word money) "Oh... oh well then. If you put it that way."
L "Right, so we're agreed then, I'll just lend these books out digitally, you don't have to pay any lawyers, and were all good."
CH (giving up mentally but happy to reach and agreement) "Ah... well then. As long as I don't have to pay any lawyers..."
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But Who's on first?
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But Who's on first?
Yes.
Like Vid angel and spatially displaced viewing. (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems this is a spacial displacement for viewing model. Which is a bit like t timeshifted viewing by recorded or re-streamed media. You may recall Vid Angel's bussiness model originally was you purchase their legal dvd copy of a movie and then they rip and stream your own DVD to you. then you sell the DVD back to them for a couple bucks less than you paid for it.
that argument lost in the court system.
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well it does make more legal sense than the version from archive.org which is basically just running a photocopier on the book and saying it's ok because of "reasons" and actually getting away with it, whereas if you or me tried using the same "reasons" and didn't do a settlement we would end up in a federal prison. that's way more confusing than giving remote access to a physical book, kind of.
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Until you get caught.
The business owners, especially in these times when their budgets are tight, are less apt to let things slide. Where you can get banned from stores, arrested, and larger fines, especially as the judge sees you as a frequent visitor to the court.
I have found that people who cheat the system, can get away with it most of the time. However, they often don't get an improvement in the quality of life, because they sacrifice saving a few bucks over the general trust from the public. Places
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This is a spoof of the first scene in HHGTTG but depending on which version Radio, TV, Book, Movie. The effectiveness of the speech on Mr. Proccer was very different.
Some version convinced him knocking down the house while Dent was away just wouldn't be proper. Other versions have Mr. Proccer playing along just to get Dent out of the way.
All version, unfortunately, has Dent's house being knocked down. So this version of Digital Sharing of books will turn out badly. As I am sure the lawyers will arrive and
My problem here is (Score:4, Funny)
Give me reasonable copyrite laws and, I'll quit using, um, what?
My inner lawyer is telling me to STFU now.
Re:My problem here is (Score:5, Insightful)
Regretfully, no "reasonable laws" that confer monopoly power and economic (excess) profits to someone can be maintained in the long run. The reason is simple - the economic profits (the profits that are in excess of the opportunity costs of the employed factors of production, and in equilibrium, in excess of any other market investment opportunity) are "free money" in the sense that investing them in the business - or in any other market - won't make return on this money higher.
The rational behavior of the receiver of these monopoly profits is therefore to invest them in the only place where more returns will surely come from, which is strengthening their legal monopoly.
Therefore you observe the constant push for stricter, longer and tougher "IP" "rights", which is basically an euphemism for monopolistic behavior but without the stigma.
Abolishing these "rights" at all, and coming up with a better, working scheme to pay for innovation is what is needed.
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Well fine, in 2 months when the courts open again, you can file a lawsuit.
Then you get to explain to a judge exactly why you think "I want money" is so much more important than biding by the law "to promote the progress of science and useful arts"
Do let us know how it goes.
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The local university [jyu.fi] here was doing this at least in the mid-00s. In 2006, I began to study for teacher training, and all the preliminary courses had their lecture videos online. You only had to show up for the exam.
Of course, it's much nicer being present for a lecture to ask questions etc. But with the bulk courses for basic stuff, the video versions make a lot of sense.
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Those that are not okay are usually places whose courses you don't want to watch anyway.
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We did that even in the 90s! (Score:1)
On, audio recordings and notes before the Internet got fast enough, and distributing them via physical media before that . . .
. . .but it was very useful for when you missed a class.
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The value of a college education is far greater than attending the lectures.
It is about doing the work, having your work evaluated to see if you have learned the material properly.
Then the piece of paper backed by the college. Which you can use as evidence that you have met a particular education level.
Having these classes posted on YouTube most colleges probably wouldn't care that much. However, if other colleges just used these classes as a replacement for their own lectures then they would probably have
What kind of books. (Score:2)
I wonder how many of them you can find on libgen?
already should have been done (Score:2)
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Effort in scanning the books.
Having to figure out the legality and Copywrite issues. (Libraries and Universities have a complex love-hate relationship with publishers)
Libraries like to see students there more than just online.
However, for me, Online digital media is much better than books. I have a condition where my eyes cannot follow a straight line. So reading books is very stressful for me. While reading off a screen with the LCD/CRT Grid Pattern helps me follow the straight line, or if I can turn it
So, will they do like the CIA, and demand we .... (Score:2, Funny)
"give it back"? :D
Man, this whole imaginary property delusion is like a really crazy cult.
Yeah, sure, you "own" this "secret" that you plan to tell the whole world for money, but they "can't" tell each other or they'd be "thieves". Even though you didn't even come up with it, and are merely "distributing" it... by telling people to download it from your server. . . . :D
. . . And this thin disc of baked dough "is" the body of Christ.
. . . Riiiight.
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. . . And this thin disc of baked dough "is" the body of Christ. :D
. . . Riiiight.
How else do you explain the virgin birth? Jesus/Mary is plant based.
His first miracle was turning water into wine. His BAC must be off the charts.
Re: So, will they do like the CIA, and demand we . (Score:1)
Well, you can look up the stories that we know about Jesus in old texts from India and Egypt (under different names), that are about 2500 years older than the 500 years they were claimed to be in the 1500 year old bible. So ... :D
Prior Art (Score:3)
Keep lowering the friction (Score:2)
Interesting how they split the lending period into per hour portions, allowing more simultaneous viewers. This might cause them trouble since with a physical book you cannot really share a book between two people — a daytime reader and a nighttime reader.
I am assuming they total the number of copies held by all Hatsu member libraries. However if more libraries join (say all public libraries, and why not?) or if any member library accepts online membership requests with relatively loose requirements, a
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Interesting how they split the lending period into per hour portions, allowing more simultaneous viewers. This might cause them trouble since with a physical book you cannot really share a book between two people — a daytime reader and a nighttime reader.
Actually, if you're just reading a couple of pages before you put it back on the shelves, or if you're just looking up some information quickly, you can have multiple people share the same book within a short time duration.
We actually do this all the time!
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Not sure if you're saying the same thing I submitted to the google a few days ago. The google has plenty of cash to pay the authors and publishers, so they could throw open all of their scanned books, pay the fees, and just write it off as charity in times of medical crisis.
Why not? I think the main factor is the greed of the publishers, which is infinite. Most of the authors are reasonable and you can negotiate with them, but the profit-driven publishers have an incurable problem. No amount of money can po
Some infro from a writer's spouse. (Score:2, Insightful)
To add some information to this mix:
Libraries are not supposed to buy basic books and lend them out. Publishers offer what are called "Library Copies" that are priced higher and in some cases printed on better stock and bindings to last longer. The Library can then loan out those books an agreed upon number of times. I'm not sure but I think it's something like 40 times. After that they must renew a license for the book or in most cases acquire a new one as the original is too worn after 40 checkouts.
Th