Interesting post on Brian Mathews' The Ubiquitous Librarian blog about file sharing. But not the kind of file sharing you might expect...
I imagine most of us are aware, at least vaguely, that illegal music file sharing is a widespread problem. Or at least, a problem from the standpoint of copyright law and music companies. File sharers definitely have a different perspective: why pay for something you can get for free? People borrow albums from their friends all the time, so what's the difference between that and downloading music from internet "friends"?
But file sharing is more than just music. It's also books and articles, including textbooks, e-books, current academic journals, and the list goes on. There is often a student perspective that there's little reason to learn and navigate complex library interfaces when they can just download whatever they need from a site they already use. The legal issues are clear: this is copyrighted material being illegally scanned, posted, and downloaded. But it's not a deterrent to many.
Related, there's a very notable file sharing trial going on right now to keep an eye on...
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1 comment:
Wow, did not know that. This market makes good sense for people who don't have access via libraries to that content. But I fear it may make some usability sense for people who do have access, the folks who know the bit torrent world better than they know their library.
Josh B
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