[an_ko]

I'm uninformed, as I'm into neither piracy nor libraries. What are the differences between the two from an author's financial perspective? My initial impression is that they sound equivalent; both are used to get your book for free, by people who don't want to buy it.

[cooperadymas]

Libraries buy the e-book legally and loan it out to a single person who then returns it. Libraries are often forced to buy ebooks at a much higher than consumer price, supposedly to offset the cost of customers who would buy the book themselves if libraries didn't exist. The author/publisher get paid for every copy purchased by every library and no more than 1 person can be reading that copy of the book at a given time. If someone wants to permanently add it to their collection they must purchase it themselves.

It's the functional equivalent of someone buying the book and then passing it on to the next person who wants to read it.

With pirating, perhaps one person bought the book originally and then it gets sent to an infinite number of people who permanently have it in their collection. The author gets paid practically nothing.

[CharlesW]

> What are the differences between the two from an author's financial perspective?

The short answer is that libraries buy books, pirates don't.

In regards to physical books, a good place to start is understanding "first sale doctrine"[1], which allows both libraries and you to do what you want with a book once you're purchased it.

First sale doctrine does not apply to DRM-encumbered ebooks, so libraries must buy as many licenses as they wish to loan, paying three-to-five times the retail price for each limited-time license, and re-purchasing those licenses when they expire (typically after two years).

[1] https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-first-sale-doctr...

[michaelmrose]

Libraries who purchase books for a much smaller discount than other bulk buys drive more sales than they cost. For a new release which is when most sales are made the library only buys n copies when n * x copies are simultaneously desired by readers who want to read your book now not after a 12 week waiting list. This is to say they drive more sales than they cost.

Here is an interesting answer on the topic.

https://www.quora.com/How-does-a-library-pay-royalties-to-th...

They also provide a net benefit to society by encouraging knowledge and literacy. There is a social expectation that physical goods are sold in most cases without expectation that seller will retain contractual control in order to derive maximum profit. Example nobody liked when Keurig sold coffee pots that wouldn't work with generic or indeed even older official pods via electronic tags in pods.

Also keep in mind that that we all exist in a society there is no reasonable expectation that you have a moral right to be able to use societies apparatus to maximize profit if its at societies expense. Limits are the norm.

[cygx]

In Germany, libraries pay 3-4 Cent per lending to VG Wort, the relevant copyright collecting society, which in turn pays royalties to the authors.