Re: public lending right
On 06 Nov 2002 17:52:33 -0600, John Hasler <john@dhh.gt.org> wrote:
>I don't see why a public library even in the UK couldn't lend non-free.
>How would it differ from lending out a non-free book (i.e., the usual
>kind)?
Huh? Do you have to pay to get a book out of a library in the US then?
In the UK you pay nothing, unless you keep it beyond a time limit;
then you pay a fine, which is a punishment, not a fee for the book. In
other words, UK libraries don't lend non-free books.
They do lend non-free cassettes and CDs of copyrighted music at a quid
a shot or thereabouts.
I suspect that lending Debian CDs would be no problem, and they could
even lend Windoze CDs as long as the borrower erased from their PC
everything they'd copied off it! (as you may borrow a book, learn
stuff from it, but not photocopy it).
As regards having a machine with a CDRW for people to make their own
copies - Great idea, but in my experience libraries don't like giving
the public access to removable disk drives of any sort: they offer
internet access, but the boxes used have neither floppy nor CDRW
drives, so it's rather pointless having them really.
Pigeon
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