I want to know how they propose to get all the digital rights to all the books and media the library already owns.... They would have to tax them anyway for that master plan... That alone would cost millions. and many authors and publishers have exclusive agreements with commercial companies on their digital rights of the media in question so they wouldn't even be willing to offer it. They have so many flaws in the system it isn't even funny.
How would I get books on CD or rent DVD's??? I couldn't download the files? as that would be copyright infringement right there as then i would have my own personal copy of it.. Its impossible to have a digital library. They are thinking of just books and reading materials. Not other forms of media that is already semi-digital form.
How do you limit access to this media then? since right now its only Grand Forks County people that can get a library card for 50 cents. otherwise its like 10 dollars a year for out of county people?? Where will you go for a library card?? the DMV??
I agree. where are they going to hold the backups? Who's going to pay for the servers and the upkeep? new technology?? Who's got the phat bandwith pipe to throw this up and be able to reliably have it only 99.9% of the time (thats what people would expect if it was online, as thats what most other websites say their uptime is.
EDIT: Oh god that first one was written by a "tax Law" teacher!?!? LOL WTF a lawyer suggesting theft by making things in digital format... and he of all people thinks that
At those cutting-edge libraries, one accesses the library from anywhere in the world, the book electronically is sent in seconds — and it is due back, again in digital form, in a few weeks. All of this for no cost, just like our library lends hardcover books.
NO COST!!. Of all people a Tax Law teacher should know that TINSTAAFL is still all well and true in any form of business now days. There is cost. Who's paying for that digital media license. who's paying for the bandwidth? who's paying for the upkeep of the information? who's paying for the offsite backup? Who's paying for software and hardware licensing???
I'm glad i'm not taking a class from him... sounds like he needs to think about his whole idea a weee bit more.