"If the budget is low, the taxes can be increased."
You've never tried to get funding for a library, I can see. Along with the rest of the educational system in the US, libraries really get pushed aside in order to fund other things. The reason that libraries don't have a lot of money is the same reason that schools in our inner cities are so hellish. People aren't concerned with education and free books. Perhaps they assume that anyone can afford to buy their books from Barnes and Noble, I don't know. But trying to get extra funding for a library is like pulling teeth.
Recently, they opened a new branch of the local library on the west, and "posher", side of town. Because the budget was so small, there was only enough money to build the thing, and no money at all for the collection. They had a nice pretty buliding, but had to rely on the public to raise funds to actually put books in it. Sad.
You are making some grave assumptions about libraries. The first being that libraries around the country have a great deal of technology. They most likely would NOT have any way of checking out an e-book (unless it's perhaps a very rich suburban public library, or possibly a corporate library), because they would not be able to afford the hardware. It is much cheaper for them to purchase their five copies of Harry Potter than to worry about the difficulties associated with something like a RocketBook that would not even necessarily circulate.
The second assumption you have made is that libraries aren't extra-careful about copyright issues. They are in fact quite paranoid about them. The fair use part will obviously not apply to whole copies of books. Libraries are government agencies, ftmp, and are very hardcore about not violating copyright.
It will be a long time coming before libraries cease to circulate books.
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"If the budget is low, the taxes can be increased."
You've never tried to get funding for a library, I can see. Along with the rest of the educational system in the US, libraries really get pushed aside in order to fund other things. The reason that libraries don't have a lot of money is the same reason that schools in our inner cities are so hellish. People aren't concerned with education and free books. Perhaps they assume that anyone can afford to buy their books from Barnes and Noble, I don't know. But trying to get extra funding for a library is like pulling teeth.
Recently, they opened a new branch of the local library on the west, and "posher", side of town. Because the budget was so small, there was only enough money to build the thing, and no money at all for the collection. They had a nice pretty buliding, but had to rely on the public to raise funds to actually put books in it. Sad.
You are making some grave assumptions about libraries. The first being that libraries around the country have a great deal of technology. They most likely would NOT have any way of checking out an e-book (unless it's perhaps a very rich suburban public library, or possibly a corporate library), because they would not be able to afford the hardware. It is much cheaper for them to purchase their five copies of Harry Potter than to worry about the difficulties associated with something like a RocketBook that would not even necessarily circulate. The second assumption you have made is that libraries aren't extra-careful about copyright issues. They are in fact quite paranoid about them. The fair use part will obviously not apply to whole copies of books. Libraries are government agencies, ftmp, and are very hardcore about not violating copyright. It will be a long time coming before libraries cease to circulate books.