Napster and Library Budgets

[Jerremie Clyde]

Please excuse any cross postings

I have to admit that I haven’t really given the
Napster debate a lot of thought.  It just seemed like
a lost cause with big record labels crushing an
attempt to use the Internet to circumvent copyright
and high music prices.

I have recently discovered that the Napster debate has
a great deal of relevancy to libraries.  I should
clarify, it is not Napster itself which is important,
but the peer-to-peer concept of distribution that it
is based on.   

Lesley Ellen Harris’ newest editorial in The Copyright
& New Media Law Newsletter looks at how the
peer-to-peer concept of distribution affects pricing
of copyrighted materials.  She writes that the
“economics are inescapable, the downward price
pressure on all copyright works will accelerate if
more people demand, and pay for, access to those
works. Napster may lose in court, but ultimately,
libraries and Internet users will win in the form of
lower prices.”  

Lesley Ellen Harris gives an interesting and well
thought review of how the Napster debate is relevant
to libraries.  It is worth taking a look, especially
because it gives one cause to hope for a time in the
future when selection committee meetings will be
centered on acquiring new serials.  Instead of
deciding which serials can be dropped, and how much
more of the monograph budget will need to be
sacrificed to pay for serials that remain. 

The editorial is from Volume 4, Issue 4 of The
Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter: For Libraries,
Archives & Museums. Reading the editorial is well
worth your time and you can obtain a copying by
emailing libraries at copyrightlaws.com with the subject
matter as:  editorial.

The newsletter is produced by Handshake Productions
(http://handshakeproductions.com), edited by Lesley
Ellen Harris, and is meant to keep librarians,
archives and museums abreast of important copyright
and licensing issues and news, and it provides
practical solutions to everyday activities.

Jerremie Clyde,
MLIS Student



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