Librarians are Filthy Pirates

Ah, technology. Someone once said anything that exists before you are born is a natural part of the world. Anything developed before you are 30 is exciting and new, and anything produced afterward is unnatural and against the very nature of things. Now that I have my three full decades, I see that they were on to something these. You see, I really WANT to like the Amazon kindle. It's e-paper display calls out to me, its storage capacity, and the ability to easily convert Project Gutenburg texts for $0.10 a work is intriguing. I like the wireless delivery service. Aside from the (currently) astronomical price, the thing that keeps me from getting one is the idea of what it means for literature. In making a book a digital file, it makes it too easy for publishers to apply the "License Doctrine" that has rules the world of the MP3. By this rule, libraries would need to seek special arrangements with the publishing company, and secondhand bookshops dissapear from the Earth. No longer can an old professor leave his collection of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, dogears, marginalia, and all, to a favored grandchild. No longer can the works of Wil Cuppy be found - if it's out of print, it's out of existence - reminiscent of Phillip Dick's librarians in Counter-Clock world. All of things things make me want to throw a bit of oil on the tracks of progress. I like my collection of books. I like finding a First Edition of Neil Gaiman's Stardust at a local secondhand shop. I like the idea that my collection of books may someday be a family heirloom. I like that if I want to loan a book to a friend, the police don't come bursting though the skylights. Likewise if I want to buy a new book, I do not have to give my name, address, and purchasing habits to the person behind the counter. In fact, were it not for second hand books, I would likely have never become a reader at all. Fortunately, I was supplied with so many books from older cousins and yard sales in my youth, that I was reading 3rd/4th grade materials before kindergarten. So how you you feel? Do you own a kindle? What's on it? Do you think it will replace printed material? Do You Like Green Eggs and Ham? Would you have been able to get that reference had your parents not bought the book at a garage sale?