Publishers Should be Making E-Book Licensing Better, Not Worse
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Macmillan, one of the “Big Five” publishers, is imposing new limits on libraries’ access to ebooks—and libraries and their users are fighting back.
Starting last week, the publisher is imposing a two-month embargo period on library ebooks. When Macmillan releases a new book, library systems will be able to purchase only one digital copy for the first eight weeks after it’s published. Macmillan is offering this initial copy for half-price ($30), but that has not taken away the sting for librarians who will need to answer to frustrated users. In large library systems in particular, readers are likely to experience even longer hold queues for new Macmillan e-book releases. For example, under the new Macmillan embargo, the 27 branches of the San Francisco Public Library system, serving a city of nearly 900,000 people, will have to share one single copy right when the demand for the new title is the greatest.
The harms to libraries and their patrons during these two months go far beyond wait times. E-books are a critical resource for library users with vision impairment, dyslexia, and other physical or learning needs. An embargo on new e-books disproportionately harms these readers who rely on digital formats, and violates the principles of equitable access at the core of library services.
After the two-month embargo period ends, libraries will be welcome to purchase additional copies of the e-book under normal terms, which aren’t great to begin with: typically, a $60 price tag for an e-book that can only be lent out to one user at a time for two years or 52 lends, whichever comes first. After that, the library has to license another e-book. On top of that, libraries tend to have different agreements with each of their publishers and vendors, all of which are subject to change.
This is a significant mark-up over what a consumer might expect to pay for a new e-book, and a falsely restrictive model compared to libraries’ rights for physical books. When a library purchases a physical book, the purchase is covered by first sale doctrine, which means the library can lend it out freely, repair it, give it away, or resell it. But libraries don’t have any of those protections when it comes to e-books.
So why is Macmillan imposing additional burdens? In a July memo, CEO John Sargent says the publisher’s move is motivated by “growing fears that library lending was cannibalizing sales” of new e-books and a need to “protect the value of your books during their first format publication,” but fails to present any evidence to back up his claims. (He also ignores existing, consistent evidence to the contrary.)
In response, libraries across the country have boycotted, or at least strongly denounced, Macmillan e-book purchases. In another extraordinary step, the American Library Association has invited library users to sign onto a petition against the new embargo. The campaign, called #eBooksForAll, had over 160,000 signatures before the embargo started last week. Since then, the signature count has climbed to nearly 200,000.
All of this does not mean that Macmillan has it wrong on e-books across the board; for example, Macmillan publishes Tor Books, the only DRM-free imprint in the Big Five.
But of all the Big Five publishers to change e-book terms in the past year, Macmillan’s e-book embargo for libraries is by far the most contentious. The other four—Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster—are surely watching the backlash. We urge readers, and authors who like to be read, to sign the ALA’s petition and let Macmillan know that the embargo is a mistake.
![When clicking a link to a HuffPost article I was presented with this overlay where I had to agree to their terms or "manage my options". No, thanks!](https://social.gl-como.it/photo/link/222 "When clicking a link to a HuffPost article I was presented with this overlay where I had to agree to their terms or "manage my options". No, thanks!")
rae
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to rae • •oil lamps require a flame to start burning, the small ember you get from char cloth isn't enough, so you need some kind of intermediate kindling.
Most instructions show how to light a full fire, so for kindling they use big-ish bundles of dry grass, vegetable fibers etc., sulfur matches were used in recent time as a smaller alternative (and I know they were used to directly light lamps), I'm wondering if there is another relatively small alternative.
rae
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •...which is why my answer to you was "Lighting a candle or lamp with flint and steel often involves lighting char cloth or very slim tinder and then using that to light the wick."
Having watched videos of people doing this online, I'm not seeing them using large bundles of dry grass.
Algot
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
Unknown parent • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •e.g. these are replicas, with a picture of the original below; from Italy, Spain (both 2nd century AD) and Belgium (generic “iron age”).
riproduzionistoriche.com/accia…
riproduzionistoriche.com/accia…
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Elena ``of Valhalla''
Unknown parent • •I'm not that sure about fire pistons: from what I've seen they seem to also involve the same steps as flint and steel, except with the tinder being ignited by heated air instead of sparks.
I've only seen fire pistons online, but they don't seem that much faster than flint and steel, assuming that somebody is trained in using them.
Tarbuck Transom 🌹
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Fire is the shared blood of community. You generally would ask some lit coals of a neighbor and carry them home in a jar ("to heap coals on their head") and light your fire from that. Lanterns etc were lit from a spill, straw, or noodle (spills preferred) because bootstrapping fire suucks. But if you must:
Charcloth or char moss on top of flint, striking w/ sparks that catch and glow, place lit cloth into tinder and blow into a flame, light the lantern from that.
Tarbuck Transom 🌹
in reply to Tarbuck Transom 🌹 • • •This is a spill plane and the spills it produces btw. You can make them by heavily skewing a regular plane (and I have) but a dedicated tool is far easier in the long run despite the complicated angles and precise chisel work required to make one.
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