How is using the Library different from Piracy?

[Thoth]

I finally got around to buying a TV a couple of months ago and I've been catching up on my movie watching for free thanks to the local library's DVD collection.

Downloading movies for free from the interwebs is "piracy". Yet checking the same movie out of the library (also for free) is perfectly legal.

So what's the difference?

[ColdWizard]

People --> Taxes --> Government --> Library --> Stuff --> You --> Library

[AAAAAAAAH!]

The difference is the publishers get a tiny amount of money from selling things to libraries.

[Elok]

There are other examples where it gets fuzzier, but here, at least, there's a sharp limit to how much you can squeeze out of a single paid-for copy; the original DVD was purchased legally, gets bounced around a couple of times--a couple of dozen for popular stuff--before getting old enough that the DVD only gets checked out once every two months or so. During the movie's "hot" period, when everybody wants to see it, you've got to wait for it to be seen by whoever's currently got it checked out, then pounce on it as soon as it's checked back in. A lot of hassle, really. And there's a good chance of try-then-buy, especially with the child audiences libraries cater to; kid sees movie when it's checked out at library, then begs MAMA CAN WE PLEASE SEE FROZEN AGAIN PLEEEASSEE so long that she goes and gets it from Wal-Mart to avoid further hassle.

With piracy, by contrast, even the original copy may be illegally obtained, and it can be multiplied into a permanently-owned copy an infinite number of times, even during that same "hot" period studios depend on. You can get the thing off the internet for free, in some cases before it's even out in theaters in your area, whereas libraries don't always get the DVD the moment it hits store shelves, and even then they don't typically have lots of copies. Now, Netflix is their enemy; they deliberately withhold sales to Netflix and Redbox until sales are pretty dead anyway. Which probably just drives people to pirates, which means even less studio profit, but whatever. Libraries just can't threaten in the same way.

[Felch]

Libraries are state sanctioned, so they're technically engaged in privateering. That's why every library has a letter of marque somewhere in its offices. If you talk to the people at the front desk, they'll be happy to show it to you.

[regexcellent]

The physical copies in the library are rivalrous.

[Fake Boris]

Libraries pay more than normal retail price for their stuff.

[Thoth]

Libraries are state sanctioned, so they're technically engaged in privateering. That's why every library has a letter of marque somewhere in its offices. If you talk to the people at the front desk, they'll be happy to show it to you.

[Thoth]

There are other examples where it gets fuzzier, but here, at least, there's a sharp limit to how much you can squeeze out of a single paid-for copy; the original DVD was purchased legally, gets bounced around a couple of times--a couple of dozen for popular stuff--before getting old enough that the DVD only gets checked out once every two months or so. During the movie's "hot" period, when everybody wants to see it, you've got to wait for it to be seen by whoever's currently got it checked out, then pounce on it as soon as it's checked back in. A lot of hassle, really.

With piracy, by contrast, even the original copy may be illegally obtained, and it can be multiplied into a permanently-owned copy an infinite number of times, even during that same "hot" period studios depend on. You can get the thing off the internet for free, in some cases before it's even out in theaters in your area, whereas libraries don't always get the DVD the moment it hits store shelves, and even then they don't typically have lots of copies.

So the major differences are: that the Library gets the movie later, always pays for it vs maybe/maybe not for the original copy of a "pirate" copy, and the library copy tends to have lower circulation. Sounds like it's a difference of degree not of kind.

And there's a good chance of try-then-buy, especially with the child audiences libraries cater to; kid sees movie when it's checked out at library, then begs MAMA CAN WE PLEASE SEE FROZEN AGAIN PLEEEASSEE so long that she goes and gets it from Wal-Mart to avoid further hassle.

While I'll grant that there is some small chance of try-then-by overall, I'm a little dubious about the scale of the pirated-kiddie-movie market.

[Thoth]

Libraries pay more than normal retail price for their stuff.

So libraries are basically pirates with higher than normal overhead?

[Dr Strangelove]

How long does it take a best seling book to get put on a library's shelf?
Furthermore, once it gets on the shelf there is usually one copy, which one person gets for a period of one to two weeks, so a library copy gets passed around to relativley few people.

[Thoth]

How long does it take a best seling book to get put on a library's shelf?
Furthermore, once it gets on the shelf there is usually one copy, which one person gets for a period of one to two weeks, so a library copy gets passed around to relativley few people.

So if a pirate waits for awhile after release and only distributes to a few people it's ok?

[Elok]

So the major differences are: that the Library gets the movie later, always pays for it vs maybe/maybe not for the original copy of a "pirate" copy, and the library copy tends to have lower circulation. Sounds like it's a difference of degree not of kind.

Well, yes. But the same can be said of the differences between a domestic cat and a tiger. I appreciate your boredom and your desire to play internet lawyer here--it's a fun game, done it myself--but the differences, degree or kind, are great enough that one poses a genuine economic threat to the well-being of the industry which creates those movies, while the other does not and never will.

While I'll grant that there is some small chance of try-then-by overall, I'm a little dubious about the scale of the pirated-kiddie-movie market.

There's a pirated EVERYTHING market. Actually, the problem begins when it's not a "market" at all, when they're just copying the stuff. But back when I lived in Lima (odd that I'm citing my life there twice in one day), HOLY HELL were there a lot of pirated movies, of every type. We called it Peruvian Netflix, and availed ourselves of it because there was essentially zero chance of seeing any of it in English otherwise. We saw a couple of kids' movies: Rango, and the terrible anime Earthsea adaptation, and probably some others I can't recall. Toy Story 3, maybe? Anyway, there's really no reason why kiddie movies can't be yoinked the same as every other electronic medium. The only barrier I can see is maybe technical illiteracy on Mommy's part, and that barrier is only going to get lower.

[Elok]

I should add that, while my wife and I use the local library as a kind of ghetto Netflix, the fact that we do so only shows that we are largely immune to the movie industry's sale tactics anyway; we don't want to see anything they make badly enough to see it in theaters, or by buying a DVD, or even paying for actual Netflix. We're even willing to delay gratification long enough for the movies to drop out of their new-release category so we can get them for a week instead of three days. We were lost to the movie industry anyway.

[Sava]

librarians don't say yarrr


duh