Like Libby or audible. Why is there only 2 etc copies available?
In: Technology
Because that’s the way the publishers and authors still make money instead of only selling a single digital copy that is then just copied and shared for free.
If they sold a single copy to a library who could simultaneously share it with everyone in the world, the publisher would only make a single sale.
It is usually set up so an entity can only lend as many copies at a time and they have licensed from the publisher.
In fact, when libraries pay for digital books, they come with an expiration date. A physical book will wear out over time and so a popular book will be frequently replaced by a library buying replacement copies. More sales for the publisher
The digital copies come with expiration dates to simulate this need to replace books that continue to be popular and replace those sales for the publisher.
Audible does not have limits like this. Libby only offers the number of copies that the library purchased/licensed from the publisher.
Because libraries don’t have an endless budget.
If the library wants five physical books that they want people to be able to check out at the same time, they have to buy five books.
And, if they want five audiobooks that they can lend out at the same time, they have to purchase five licenses.
Yes, the technology makes it easy to copy the files and lend them out, but that doesn’t make it *legal*.
Let me put it this way: if you wrote a book, and the New York Public Library purchases one copy of the audiobook, and had 10,000 copies checked out at a time, but you only got paid for one… would you be OK with that?
Most authors wouldn’t. Most people like to be paid for their work.
Because they have to pay for each license. Most of the value of a book are the ideas/writers labor, the labor of the editors and such — not the stack of paper. So to properly compensate authors and publishers, ebook licenses have to be purchased just like physical books.
Because in order for books to be made, authors have to eat, and giving infinity of a thing away makes it worthless, since anyone can find a free copy anywhere. So the contents of the ebook are protected by copyright laws and the author licenses out that copyright to sell copies, in essence.
If it wasn’t for us deciding that we need to pay money for goods and services, this wouldn’t be needed, and other than copyright protection we add to the file to enfroce this, there’s no technical reason any electronic file couldn’t be copied digitally an arbitrary number of times.
Physically, there are. Data can be copied as much as you want. Legally, there are not, to protect the digital property and allow publishers to make money.
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