Here’s the thing: Libraries and authors/publishers are a symbiotic relationship. When libraries use right of first sale to pay for books and lend them, or pay to license ebooks and lend them, they are helping to grow the audience of people who will directly purchase books. 1/12

Everyone wins in this scenario when it remains in balance: copyright is respected, libraries & their patrons are happy, and authors and publishers get paid. Libraries :already: pay more for ebook lending per copy than when you buy one for yourself to compensate for lending. 2/12

Recently, a publisher, feeling they weren’t getting paid enough by libraries in this model, raised prices & added longer embargo times for ebooks. Libraries boycotted that publisher b/c they couldn’t afford the new pricing. Or they paid more & put up with the longer waits. 3/12

Libraries did NOT scan print copies purchased once at cover price and lend them out for free. Internet Archive may be a non-profit, but it is NOT working on the same model as your local public library. IA is “disrupting” this symbiotic relationship between libs and pubs. 4/12

And in doing so, IA is not only costing authors and publishers money, it is endangering first use and the right of first sale that legally makes library lending POSSIBLE. The challenge is that of capitalism: the drive for anything sold is to make more money doing the thing 5/12

But libraries aren’t on a capitalist model. They serve the common good and provide universal access, not just to those who can pay directly. This is not a bad thing per se, but if the ONLY thing you worry about is sales, your incentive to work with libraries drops. 6/12

IA’s behavior right now is further endangering the symbiotic relationship that libraries and authors and publishers spent decades building up. That’s bad for libraries AND for authors and publishers. There are studies about readers discovering authors through libs and buying 7/12

Back catalogues. There are books that get big sales boosts through library book clubs, library awards, and library sales (compared to commercial sales). Library author events can supplement when publishers don’t pay for a book tour for an author. 8/12

What libraries do for HAS ECONOMIC VALUE to publishers and authors. What publishers and authors do HAS ECONOMIC VALUE for libraries. Internet Archive is throwing this balance off even more, and eroding the fragile trust between libs and pubs/authors, and the legal standing 9/12

For that trust. What happens if the right of first sale is revoked?
A plummet in library sales. A massive loss of access for a large portion of the population, and overall, I suspect, a firmly contracted sales market for books. 10/ 12

That hurts authors and publishers, particularly those not already ensconced in the brand-name high-visibility areas of publishing (I.e. 90% of the people working in publishing). 11/12

So: Internet Archive should not do this thing, and maybe authors and publishers and libraries should go back to the drawing table & figure out an updated version of the system that gets authors & publishers paid but doesn’t bankrupt libraries. Symbiosis means COOPERATION. 12/12

Addenda: this symbiosis is particularly important b/c lots of readers/hardcore book buyers focus on authors they “know” for buying because their money isn’t infinite. Best way to add an author to that “buy” list: through word of mouth. Much of which happens in libraries. 13/12

Libraries are a prime way readers/buyers TRY OUT someone to add to their “buy” list. They borrow first, then the back catalogue thing happens. Then the future book purchases happen too. When people read & like publicly with library copies, THAT’S WORD OF MOUTH. 14/12