Library System

My local library, the Schenectady County Public Library in Schenectady, NY, has a whizbang techno-geek system in place. They have downloadable books, CDs, movies and other A-V materials that are downloaded by the borrower through a wireless interface and the downloaded copy and all copies made from that downloaded copy expire after x number of days, x being defined by a license between the library and the distributor of the materials (a subscription-based service for libraries).

This system seems to me to be a fine, practical answer to the thorny copyright mess that the GOOGLE library project engenders. The public has access to the materials as we do to any hard-copy library materials, which promotes the free dissemination of information and ideas; this whole system is licensed, so the authors get paid a royalty; and the file, which is conveniently located on the borrower's computer or MP3 player, self-destructs after a finite period of time, "disappearing in a puff of logic" as my daughter would say, leaving no permanent footprint of its ever having existed. Any copies made of the file, onto an MP3 player or even a CD or DVD, for example, disappear at the same time as the original file.

Nancy
Delain Law Office, PLLC

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