[Web4lib] A million free covers, from LibraryThing

[Lars Aronsson]

Tim Spalding wrote:

> I really hope this—or more probably what comes of this—ends the 
> selling of covers to libraries.

Probably not, with all the restrictions you attached.

Still, this is a most interesting experiment.  Commercial sellers 
supposedly have a legal backing from contracts with publishers, 
which you don't?  How long will that last?  If it does last, it is 
indeed a big win.

In the blog entry, you wrote: "Publishers and authors want 
libraries and bookstores to show their covers."  -- I'm not so 
sure.  I think publishers want copyright to make it hard to use 
out-of-print books, so people buy new books instead.  Back in 
1932, Aldous Huxley wrote: "We don't want people to be attracted 
by old things. We want them to like the new ones."


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se