Of course none of these are true. Publishers charge exorbitant prices for an e-book compared to the physical book (sometimes 10x the cost). There have been attempts to restrict how many times a library can offer a book for loan (after all a physical book eventually wears out but an e book doesn't). Libraries are restricted to simultaneous use of a digital book to the number of copies (each one at full exorbitant price). It costs a library just as much to maintain and catalog a digital book as it does a physical book.
It seems sadly that only libraries are in this fight - I don't hear very much from the public except when books they want aren't available because we can't afford to buy multiple copies of electronic versions.
Do you have any evidence for this? Specifically e-books do not require expensive floor space and employee time restocking shelves. While the management costs are not free I would expect them to be substantially cheaper than physical books.
Income is lost because ebooks are never overdue and so fine income is significantly reduced over physical books.
Floor space is not reduced (we have plenty of books that need to be shelved) and reshelving costs are the lowest of any costs in the organization due to the fact that a lot of reshelving is done by volunteers.
Well, thanks to Library Genesis (and SciHub) and archive.org, I can download 95% of the books and papers I want immediately for free. Same with music. It's just incredible--when I was a kid I couldn't have imagined that this would ever happen.
Authors need to get paid. But today, authors can promote their books themselves (podcast interviews, youtube interviews, direct-to-site for established authors, readings in libraries). And they can sell directly to fans.
You'd think publishers would look at sci-hub and tone it down not up. If they keep strong-arming libraries, that too will hasten their demise. Readers don't CARE who publishes a book, and they love libraries ... which have been and will be around for millenia after Macmillan turns to dust.
