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Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

The Vatican Library is full of old books that nobody has access to.

The beauty of digital libraries is (if they are free) endless copies can be made. That's where real longevity stems from.

Besides, to read one's digital library requires a tablet and a solar charger.

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> The beauty of digital libraries is (if they are free) endless copies can be made. That's where real longevity stems from.

Unfortunately this is demonstrably not the case with libraries’ current digital offerings. Not only are endless copies not allowed to be made, they often are more costly and have a limited amount of borrowings allowed of them.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2020/01/06/inside-the-e...

I know. If I was Prez, copyright would be eliminated entirely, or at least limited to 10 years.

If copyright was more reasonable, we could also have avoided the whole hullabaloo about Roald Dahl: those who want censored versions could have them, and those who want the originals could have those. I think we'd see a rise in small-run book-on-demand style publishing, which I have always had a soft spot for.

Library Genesis doesn't seem to have this problem, curious

Neither does Sci-Hub. I'm certainly willing to advocate for copyright reform through legislative action, for instance, but of all the hills I could die on it's not the one I'd choose above all others with respect to monetary fines or imprisonment.

A lot of libraries both public and private are failing at this. Unfortunately I've asked a few librarians and IT folks in the same libraries, the consensus seems to be that it does not make sense financially for the libraries. Yet. I hope there will be change along this but we are not there yet

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