Z-Library Responds to U.S. Crackdown, Asks Authors for Forgiveness
What Z-Library and similar systems offer is a relief from the <i>tremendous</i> deadweight losses of a legacy and increasingly inexcusable private copyright regime, <i>one which has been tremendously expanded over the lifetime of many of the works presently alleged to be infringing</i>.<p>As Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz has written, <i>knowledge is a global public good</i>.[1]  And public goods inevitably result in market failure. <i>Information and markets simply don&#x27;t work.</i><p>The classic way to pay for public goods is through a tax, or tax-like, general assessment, preferably indexed by income or household wealth.<p>As I&#x27;ve noted several times here recently,[2] the $9 billion in annual bookstore sales[3] could be met with a $5.25 per month fee for a typical U.S. household, or an 0.1% income tax basis (say, rolled into your broadband access charge).<p>This would provide compensation equal to <i>all current book sales,</i> and avoid both the deadweight losses of information access denial of the present system as well as the Federal Crime of Letting People Read by which the so-called US Justice system assassinated Aaron Swartz.[4]<p>As jl2618 recently noted,[5] Criminalisation of digital distribution was only legislated in 2008 as 17 USC 506 (again in the U.S.), under Public Law 110--403:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.law.cornell.edu&#x2F;uscode&#x2F;text&#x2F;17&#x2F;506" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.law.cornell.edu&#x2F;uscode&#x2F;text&#x2F;17&#x2F;506</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.govinfo.gov&#x2F;content&#x2F;pkg&#x2F;PLAW-110publ403&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;PLAW-110publ403.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.govinfo.gov&#x2F;content&#x2F;pkg&#x2F;PLAW-110publ403&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;PLAW...</a><p>A small, progressive, integrated fee <i>would address the grossly specious complaint that &quot;authors must be paid&quot;</i>.<p>Yes, <i>pay them,</i> and decriminalise knowledge access.<p>I&#x27;ve noted much of this before, including:<p>&quot;A Modest Proposal: Universal Online Media Payment Syndication&quot; (2014) &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;old.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1uotb3&#x2F;a_modest_proposal_universal_online_media_payment&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;old.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1uotb3&#x2F;a_modes...</a>&gt;  (I&#x27;ve since suggested that broadband service providers act as the gateway for revenue collection.)<p>&quot;What the academic publishing industry calls &#x27;theft&#x27; the world calls ;research&#x27;: Why Sci-Hub is so popular&quot; (2016) &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;old.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;4p2rwk&#x2F;what_the_academic_publishing_industry_calls_theft&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;old.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;4p2rwk&#x2F;what_th...</a>&gt;<p>________________________________<p>Notes:<p>1. Joseph Stiglitz, &quot;Knowledge as a Global Public Good,&quot; in <i>Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century</i>, Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grunberg, Marc A. Stern (eds.), United Nations Development Programme, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 308-325. &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;globalpublicgood0000unse&#x2F;page&#x2F;308&#x2F;mode&#x2F;2up" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;globalpublicgood0000unse&#x2F;page&#x2F;30...</a>&gt;<p>2. E.g., &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=33647625" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=33647625</a>&gt;<p>3. &quot;Book store sales in the United States from 1992 to 2021&quot;  &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.statista.com&#x2F;statistics&#x2F;197710&#x2F;annual-book-store-sales-in-the-us-since-1992&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.statista.com&#x2F;statistics&#x2F;197710&#x2F;annual-book-store...</a>&gt;<p>4. The Archive Org Open Library link above in footnote 1 is presented by way of one of the many information innovations Swartz pioneered:  the Open Library itself.<p>5. &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=33643398" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=33643398</a>&gt;