We’re maybe slowly creeping towards a post-scarcity world. If we can avoid destroying ourselves or the planet in the next century, we might get there. But, the entrenched interests are holding on with their fingernails.
One awful example of this is library books.
In the before times, people had to go and take an actual physical book out of the library. Along came e-books. In theory, a library now only needed to buy a single copy of a book and they could lend it out to everyone. It’s no surprise that they didn’t do that, instead if they want to loan out 10 copies at a time, they buy 10 books.
What’s really stupid is that the publishers weren’t satisfied with that arrangement. They also want to simulate wear and tear on these digital ebooks, so it can be just like paperbacks. So, after 26 loans, DRM on the ebooks means they self-destruct.
That article you linked about 26 loans is from 2011. Do you know if they still do that or they decided to roll it back or something? I couldn’t find anything about it other then more articles from 2011
Other titles are metered. This is essentially a lease. Libraries purchase a title for time, 12 to 24 months or by checkouts, usually 26. When the terms of the lease expire the item is no longer available and has to be repurchased.
Did you know that you can 3d print a house in less than 24 hours? You can’t download the concrete, but you could download the plans.
We’re maybe slowly creeping towards a post-scarcity world. If we can avoid destroying ourselves or the planet in the next century, we might get there. But, the entrenched interests are holding on with their fingernails.
One awful example of this is library books.
In the before times, people had to go and take an actual physical book out of the library. Along came e-books. In theory, a library now only needed to buy a single copy of a book and they could lend it out to everyone. It’s no surprise that they didn’t do that, instead if they want to loan out 10 copies at a time, they buy 10 books.
What’s really stupid is that the publishers weren’t satisfied with that arrangement. They also want to simulate wear and tear on these digital ebooks, so it can be just like paperbacks. So, after 26 loans, DRM on the ebooks means they self-destruct.
Need to rework that to use clay and then many areas could print the house from what’s available under the land.
That article you linked about 26 loans is from 2011. Do you know if they still do that or they decided to roll it back or something? I couldn’t find anything about it other then more articles from 2011
I don’t know if it’s exactly the same, but they definitely have a limited number of loans before the library is forced to buy another copy.
Here’s an article from 2023 by a librarian with more details: