<
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the-bigger-threat-to-books-than-bans-is-distribution.php>
"Books in the US are in greater danger than you might think. Not only from
widespread bans, nor even from the ferocious attacks by the federal government,
which has so far this year attempted a takeover of the Library of Congress,
removed volumes on gender and diversity from military libraries, and scheduled
a “patriotic” review of collections at the Smithsonian. The biggest threat to
books may in fact be the least known: the oligopoly of intermediaries
controlling their distribution.
US libraries, universities, and bookstores rely for the delivery of books on a
small number of very big profit-driven companies, many of them privately held,
whose commitment to freedom of expression is at best uncertain. The list
includes the Follett Corporation ($2.8 billion in annual revenues), Clarivate
($2.6 billion), EBSCO Industries ($3.1 billion), KKR ($22.7 billion), and
Ingram Industries ($2.7 billion). Each of these companies represents a
potential chokepoint for books and periodicals. They all exercise
near-monopolistic control over a piece of the distribution chain, with the
capacity to render whole catalogues of e-books inaccessible to library patrons,
or to university students, or online book buyers, at the flick of a switch.
Nearly all publishers of newspapers, magazines, and commercial books, as well
as the tens of thousands of small, independent, and academic publishers, rely
on these same few companies to get their books into libraries, schools, and
bookstores. Industry consolidation means that publishers have little choice but
to sign contracts advantageous to distributors and the lifelines to revenues
they offer, while having little negotiating power with respect to terms.
In the case of e-books, where these near monopolies have consolidated and
solidified over the past decade, the danger of a sudden loss of access is
particularly acute. When you borrow and read an e-book at your library, for
example, that transaction is almost certainly handled by the country’s largest
private equity company, KKR. The firm currently controls as much as 90 percent
of library e-book loans through its OverDrive/Libby platform, according to a
2023 report from
Library Journal.
And then there is Amazon, which currently commands north of 80 percent of the
e-book market. A look at its business practices is illustrative of the general
vulnerability of digital books to the potential whims of a monopolistic
distributor. Nobody likes to read those infernal terms and conditions, but the
fact is that nearly all the digital books you can “buy” on Amazon remain in the
control of Amazon. The first sentence of the “Use of Kindle Content” section of
Amazon’s T&C reads, in bold type, “Kindle Content is licensed, not sold, to you
by the Content Provider,” and things pretty much go downhill from there. The
company reserves the right to terminate your use of “the Service” (i.e.,
reading the books you bought—sorry,
licensed—from it) for any number of
reasons. Unlike with paper books, you’re not allowed to give away or resell a
digital book you bought to read on a Kindle; your access to it is entirely
reliant on “the Service.” You don’t own a Kindle book, you just buy a chance to
read it at the pleasure of Amazon."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
