If my local library already owns the book and it is not checked out, what is the difference between driving there to check it out and downloading it illegally online? The impact to the author is the same: absolutely nothing.

New ways of using books are coming up - you put 1TB of books on your SSD, index it for search and use a neural net on it. Ask a question or pose a task, the model retrieves passages and then computes the reply.

For this to work what is needed is a blanket license for search and snippet use. Can't buy a whole library for such a sparse use case, ain't gonna read it in the classical sense. This approach can guarantee the generated text will not replicate the source material, just use it for reference, with citations.

- DeepMind RETRO - https://www.deepmind.com/publications/improving-language-mod...

So essentially, we have a system where a public entity (public libraries) is compensating authors for creating works that are popular. But going through a middle man (the publisher, and possibly one or more distributors) that takes a considerable cut.

In the digital age, why not cut out the middle man? Have a publicly funded e-library that pays authors directly based on how often their content is downloaded.

> I don't think arguing morals makes sense because of how subjective one's morals are

[not related to OP] I have a similar feeling every time someone moralizes in any discussion: we could argue about morality, but we need to start with a common moral framework and define what "good" and "bad" are first. Everyone assumes these are generally agreed upon but the devil is in the details when discussing something like the OP.

End the intellectual property monopolies, and instead give organizations the right to distribute creative works so long as downloads are tracked through some robust means, and then compensate authors accordingly.

Don’t outlaw libraries just because the internet now exists or legalize them but only with absurdities like fucking wait lists.

> it's already bought and paid for

Three copies, for the a metropolis of several million. :)

Yes, I am sure the author is glad that he received 30% of a book sale that is shared between hundreds of people...

The price per read (most people don't re-read most books they buy... if they even read them through once) is dramatically lower even for ebooks which have separate licensing. In the case of printed books, because the right of first sale keeps primary and wholesale markets roughly in line between readers buying retail and libraries buying retail, the price per read is even lower... propped up only due to the incidental problem of books wearing out on average after 10-20 loan-outs. If people took better care of physical library books, the price per read would approach zero.

Perhaps more importantly, the cost of books in libraries is not assigned based on the number of books checked out or read. It tends to be people in lower and lower-middle economic classes who use libraries more, even while they pay less than the per-capita average cost to keep those libraries running and their shelves stocked.

Libraries are communist entities. Even worse than that, from a capitalist perspective, although checking out books requires you to be connected with the tax base or funding source for the library, you can generally go to any public or academic library and read books on-site even if you're from another country or planet and aren't entitled to check anything out.