this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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It's just not practical -- no Minecraft server or map can realistically hold all the books in the Archive, or even just the 500k that were removed. Even if it could, you'd only be able to read them by literally taking your avatar to the book object and reading it in the tiny in-game interface.
The Minecraft thing is just a gimmick to promote awareness of press freedom and censorship, not a plausible way to deliver books to people. If the IA wanted to "set books free" they'd be better off using torrents or something like Libgen (and even then they'd still be criminally liable for making the files available, even if the publishers couldn't stop the files from being shared further).
Maybe the fact you have to be there and read it while connected is the secret sauce to prove that it's a "real" library, meaning they have a fixed number of copies (max players connected to the server at any given time) and that helps them get protected the same way a real library is?
Doubt thats the point. I mean, real libraries at this point also lend out e-books, and i dont think they have an upper limit. Probably more to do that libraries (or the cities that finance them) have deals with publishers, and IA doesnt.
YMMV, but my local library system has a limit on the number of e-books that can be checked out at a time. Some e-books they only have 1 or 2 “copies” of, other they have 20+ “copies”. Seems dumb to me that there’s a limit, but I’m sure they’re forced to do it for a reason.
Ugh. Oh well, cant have nice things i guess