One of the supposed justifications for the intellectual monopoly called copyright is that it drives creativity and culture. In the last few weeks alone we have had multiple demonstrations of why the opposite is true: copyright destroys culture, and not by accident, but wilfully. For example, the MTVNews.com site, along with its sister site CMT.com, …
so low-income people in the argument are pretty obvious
how about people with disabilities or rural communities? why are they there? do they have easier access to libraries than bookstore?
and what the hell are lgbt people doing there? do they read disproportionately more more than average non-lgbt population, or why are they singled out?
seems like this whole paragraph is just “lets throw in some minorities, no one can talk back at that” lame argument
Libraries are safe spaces for minorities and the LGBTQ+ community. Books in general spread awareness and raise empathy and can also help struggling young people understand that they are not alone.
That quote isn’t saying people of these communities read or use a public library more than those who aren’t; it’s pointing out that the erasure of public safe spaces and resources affects groups that benefit from their existence more.
All of that doesn’t even mention the content that was likely present in those 500,000 books.
this text was primarily about digital archives, so i don’t think this applies much
this does make sense, ok then.
Online lending allows people in remote or rural places much more economical access to more titles than otherwise, even if they have access to a decent local library
oh right, i totally ignored the “digital” part, even though i mentioned that in nearby reply. my bad.
The argument centers around the equality of access, which is especially relevant in the digital age. Rural & disabled population may have problem accessing content with certain restrictions (e.g. need physical access, lack of accessibility features, only available in some region).
fair point, i seem to have conveniently ignored that i was talking about digital, not physical, archive here…