Re: Napster, Planned Obsolescence & Control

[Rick Anderson <Rick_Anderson@uncg.edu>]

Simone says:

> It is not a matter of being pro- or anti-property rights. I 
> think that every librarian agrees that professional authors 
> have to receive fair compensation for their work and that 
> every intellectual work needs protection against 
> plagiarism, theft, etc... 

Rick says:

Man, I sure wish that were true.  The problem is that too many librarians
are deeply invested in the illusion that what we provide is a free service
-- which leads, naturally, to the fantasy that there is such a thing as
free information.  Our infatuation with that illusion leads many (though
not most) of us to regard with deep suspicion any claim of ownership over
information.  The general public, most of whom, in my experience, have
never labored under the misapprehension that libraries provide free
service, seem now to be starting to share this illusion, thanks to the
apparent (but also illusory)  "freeness" of the Internet.  If the general
public decides that information "wants to be free" and that all attempts
to control information are repressive and untenable, the proximate losers
will be libraries and the ultimate losers will be the general public.

--------
Rick Anderson
Head Acquisitions Librarian
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro
(336) 334-5281
rick_anderson@uncg.edu

"If you enjoy, you understand;
if you understand, you enjoy... 
To like a football game is to 
understand it in the football way."
       -- Gertrude Stein