Libraries Cost Publishers $100 Billion Per Year! Ban Them!

from the this-is-fun dept

So a whole bunch of you submitted the story last week about a "study" claiming that unauthorized downloads of books was "costing" the publishing industry $3 billion per year. I avoided the study for a variety of reasons. Mainly, the reason I ignored it was because it was done by a company selling "solutions" to the (non) "problem," Attributor is a company that has a very long history of putting out totally ridiculous studies like this to try to sell more of its pointless service. And, of course, if you looked at the details of the study, you realized how ridiculous it was -- designed solely to generate headlines. So we ignored it.

However... we feel compelled to mention it now because Slashdot points us to an absolutely brilliant response by a blogger who used the same basic methodology to point out that, according to this line of thinking, libraries are costing publishers $100 billion per year:

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.

Good stuff. The blog post goes on to discuss a shifty "meeting" of so-called "librarians" set out to destroy the publishing industry. Satire at its finest. Of course will the mainstream press remember this the next time Attributor puts out some silly report? Probably not...

Filed Under: books, lending, piracy, studies
Companies: attributor