p2pnet - rss feed: Dear Authors Guild
p2p news / p2pnet:- Yesterday, we quoted p2pnet’s Alex H as saying, of the Authors Guild, "they came down against public libraries when the US government wanted to start funding them."
Actually, what he said was, “F*cking* whingeing Author’s Guild. If I remember correctly, they came down against public libraries when the US government wanted to start funding them – ‘If people can read for free, nobody will buy books! Authors will be devastated!’ "
However, we’ve just had a contrite email from Alex.
Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I’d like to apologise to the Author’s Guild for incorrectly stating that they opposed the funding of public libraries.
Author and publishers hated libraries much earlier than the year 1919, when the Authors Guild was founded. The following excerpt is from the 1791 publication Memoirs of the first Forty-Five Years of the Life of James Lackington:
I have been informed that, when circulating libraries were first opened, the booksellers were much alarmed; and their rapid increase added to their fears, and led them to think that the sale of books would be much diminished by such libraries.
But experience has proved that the sale of books, so far from being diminished by them, has been greatly promoted; as from these repositories many thousand families have been cheaply supplied with books, by which the taste of reading has become more general, and thousand of books are purchased each year by such as have first borrowed them at those libraries, and after reading, approving of them, have become purchasers.
As members of an relatively old content industry, I now realise authors and publishers would have worked our their "unauthorized use" and sharing issues out a lot earlier than I initially gave you credit for.
I hope that not too many 18th century book borrowers had to be sued before you guys figured out how great it was for your industry.
Please accept my most abject and humble apologies.
Alex H
(PS – I can provide you with some great reading material on this if you like 
* = u
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
