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Sam Altman needs enclosure of the digital commons to make AI slop into money but the Internet Archive can't lend books for free, what an embarrassing timeline

@ingrid
Controversial opinion: they're both wrong

@faduda

Ah come on now Gerard, you can't go explaining to people that libraries actually pay writers a little bit of money when people borrow their books and the IA were just giving away the stuff.

Then instead of passing around a writer's books they'd have to campaign for UBI so writers wouldn't need to be paid through sales or something which would involve actual work rather than self-justification.

Much easier to "destroy (C)" to the benefit of Disney and OpenAI. Less effort.

@ingrid

@Homebrewandhacking @faduda @ingrid

Yes, I read it to the end, which is where I read this:

"Libraries offer authors two things. They can buy their books, which nets the author some royalties. They can also offer exposure, allowing the author to gain a new audience who might buy their books the next time rather than just borrowing them."

I know that's a rather general statement, and a bit dated, being from 2016, so here's another article from 2023:
janefriedman.com/what-do-autho

Here's the relevant quote from that article:

"Traditionally published authors are paid when their books sell to libraries _regardless of format_, usually at the same royalty rate that’s paid out for a retail sale." (emph. added)

There's a table giving example payment rates for ebooks vs print a couple of paragraphs down from that, if you're interested.

And yes, I made a mistake by assuming the U.S. system is how it's done globally. But you made the same one by assuming the U.K. system is the global model in your response to Gerard.

Jane Friedman · What Do Authors Earn from Digital Lending at Libraries? | Jane FriedmanDoes library lending help or hurt author and publisher income? The debate continues.