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Tuesday 19 January 2010
Offline Book "Lending" Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion

Hot on the heels of the story in Publisher’s Weekly that “publishers could be losing out on as much $3 billion to online book piracy” comes a sudden realization of a much larger threat to the viability of the book industry. Apparently, over 2 billion books were “loaned” last year by a cabal of organizations found in nearly every American city and town. Using the same advanced projective mathematics used in the study cited by Publishers Weekly, Go To Hellman has computed that publishers could be losing sales opportunities totaling over $100 Billion per year, losses which extend back to at least the year 2000. These lost sales dwarf the online piracy reported yesterday, and indeed, even the global book publishing business itself.

From what we’ve been able to piece together, the book “lending” takes place in “libraries”. On entering one of these dens, patrons may view a dazzling array of books, periodicals, even CDs and DVDs, all available to anyone willing to disclose valuable personal information in exchange for a “card”. But there is an ominous silence pervading these ersatz sanctuaries, enforced by the stern demeanor of staff and the glares of other patrons. Although there’s no admission charge and it doesn’t cost anything to borrow a book, there’s always the threat of an onerous overdue bill for the hapless borrower who forgets to continue the cycle of not paying for copyrighted material.

109 notes

  1. woody reblogged this from travors and added:
    I have, regrettably, visited such dens
  2. william-elms reblogged this from dbmurphy
  3. vforvelociraptor reblogged this from altidude
  4. altidude reblogged this from azspot
  5. dewanajan reblogged this from libraryland
  6. other-stuff reblogged this from sitasays and added:
    Heh And I keep seeing that back in the days of LPs everything was safe for the record industry. My friends and I would...
  7. elizaevans reblogged this from libraryland
  8. dbmurphy reblogged this from western-aristocracy
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  16. infoneer-pulse reblogged this from libraryland
  17. punkassbookjockey reblogged this from libraryland
  18. libraryland reblogged this from notforpublicconsumption
  19. kingfish76 reblogged this from bluenemesis
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  21. doctorfurious reblogged this from notforpublicconsumption
  22. notforpublicconsumption reblogged this from bluenemesis and added:
    ____________ (smirk) _________________________________________ (bluenemesis:
  23. bluenemesis reblogged this from theconceptlibrarian and added:
    Hot on the heels of the story in Publisher’s Weekly that “publishers could be losing out on as much $3 billion to online...
  24. pdl2h reblogged this from azspot
  25. electro-clarifier reblogged this from travors and added:
    crowded restaurant...nearest patron. Then sue them

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