The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) issues a white paper called Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist for Readers
Also available as a PDF
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Digital Rights Management and other thoughts
The white paper by EFF should give us all cause to reflect on the rights that so easily in the digital world could be compromised. There are many questions that need to be answered before librarians jump completely onto the digital book bandwagon. Access certainly appears easier for those of us who live daily in the world of computers, but what of society as a whole, will access of digital books be offered in various formats free of charge to all people? Will we be owners of the book once purchased and can we lend it to others as we can now in the physical world. Other deeper questions should cause us to be hesitant until answers can be provided, such as where are the books stored? Are they in a censorship-free environment and what of the privacy of the readership? Before we become immersed in the digital marketplace, convinced that digital books are the wave of the future, librarians need to be certain that the rights of those seeking information are still a higher priority than the driving economic force that seems to now control internet commerce.