16 Aug
2000
16 Aug
'00
7:28 a.m.
Sellam wrote:
Sure, but I think there's another problem, which
is that this practice is
most likely illegal :)
If someone would set up a library, there are lots of exemptions in
copyright law for those. It would probably have to be set up as a
non-profit corporation; otherwise it might be possible for a copyright
holder that wants to stir up trouble to claim that it's not a "real"
library.
Copyright law allows a library to make a (single) photocopy of a document to
lend out in place of a rare document. I think a case could be made that
a scanned image is equivalent. You'd just have to require that the
borrower return the scanned image when they're done with it. Perhaps a
scheme like netlibrary uses would work.