Publisher’s Weekly posted an article a few years ago about the potential danger of libraries no longer being able to lend books to the public.
WHAT???
Here is the link to the article:
If I’m understanding the article correctly, the Supreme Court is trying to decide if libraries have the right to lend e-books and other books to their patrons. Now they are taking things one step farther and thinking about making it illegal to lend any “foreign” published books within the United States as it might infringe on someone’s copyrights. Would the same apply to US published books no longer being allowed to stock the shelves in the libraries of other countries?
Again I say…WHAT???
How is it even possible that there are people sitting around debating this issue? When did we board the CRAZY TRAIN???
I could be completely off base, but I thought libraries purchased the books they stocked their shelves with? And all John Q. Public needed to do to have access to said books was to apply for a library card. Following this line of logic, the original author received fair compensation for their work and what the library chooses to do with the book after the purchase is their business. And when you consider the ever increasing number of struggling readers and rising illiteracy around the world, in my mind ANYTHING which encourages someone to read is a GOOD THING!
Think about it. We might never have been able to pick up a copy of A Christmas Carol from the local library when we were children because Dickens lived on the wrong side of the pond. And as for reading the Harry Potter books? Forget about it! Where will the CRAZY TRAIN stop? Will I have to wonder if the book police will handcuff me should I choose to read a book purchased from one of my Australian friends just because I didn’t ask permission first? Or maybe we just need to go back to the caveman days and do away with books all together. We can gather around the one storyteller in the village that can remember it all and hope WE won’t forget ourselves in the process!
I know this is a bit extreme, but it’s as silly to me as the Supreme Court having to spend their precious time deciding a case like this. Don’t they have better things to do?
Hey, I have an idea! How about some people not being greedy to the inth degree and spoiling it for the rest of us? How about some people acting like adults, even when they write for children, and thinking about the greater appeal of seeing their books in the hands of the intended audience in the first place without trying to nickel and dime the public to death?
I know I’m a small published author in a larger publishing pool, so maybe some people would think I have no write to speak, but I DO have a right to my opinion and I have an overwhelming LOVE for books in all forms. I simply don’t understand the whole idea of having to fight for the right to pick up a “foreign” published book from the library as compared to a “homegrown” one.
For myself, I am going to let the CRAZY TRAIN pass me by and I hope others will do the same.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments…
International best selling, award winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest book, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound (a YA fantasy) is scheduled to be released in ebook edition in the summer of 2018 from Story Catcher Publishing, with the print edition hopefully coming out late fall 2018.
