0:00

Hi. I'm Daniel Alarcon, host of NPR's Spanish

0:02

language podcast, Pallamboolante. This season,

0:04

Superman flies to Chile for some real life

0:07

heroics. A very strange dog becomes

0:09

front page news in Peru. Mexican activists

0:11

infiltrate an Austrian museum to tell the story

0:13

of a controversial artifact. and much

0:15

much more. New episodes every Tuesday

0:18

starting September twentieth available wherever

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you get your podcasts.

0:23

This is Planet Money

0:25

from NPR.

0:28

Kathy

0:28

Giorgio knew she wanted

0:30

to be an author at an early age. When

0:33

did you start writing?

0:34

Oh, Lordy. I

0:37

started writing basically as soon as I

0:39

could. I used to Copy

0:41

the pictures out of my picture books and then

0:43

rewrite the books the way I felt they should be

0:45

written. Kathy would change the

0:48

plot points, come up with new dialogue,

0:50

make the kids' stories she was reading a

0:52

little more intense. There was

0:54

a book called Flip runs away again,

0:57

and it was about a cult, a

0:59

little horse. and I changed it

1:01

into a murder mystery. So who murdered

1:03

who in the little cold? The cult actually

1:05

was the

1:06

murderer. Oh, wow.

1:08

He murdered a very nasty cow that

1:10

was in the field. Did the cow have it coming?

1:12

Is that what we're saying? cow had it coming

1:14

for sure.

1:16

Cathy's murderous cult story goes

1:19

unpublished, but she writes other things.

1:21

She first publishes something, a serialized short

1:23

story when she's just fifteen years

1:25

old. Now Kathy is what you might

1:27

call a working author. Her books are

1:29

not on the bestseller list. She teaches to

1:31

help make ends meet, but she's published a lot

1:33

of writing too. Short stories, poetry,

1:36

essays.

1:36

My first book was The Home for

1:38

Weaver Clocks, and it was a novel, and it

1:40

was published in twenty ten. The

1:42

year I turned fifty. Congratulations. That's

1:45

great. Thank you. She's written thirteen

1:47

books since, and people are

1:49

reading them. They buy them at bookstores, list

1:51

them on audiobook, borrow them from libraries.

1:53

But

1:53

a couple of years ago, that last thing, the

1:56

borrowing from libraries, it became a

1:58

little more complicated for Cathy because

2:00

of something very specific

2:02

ebooks. More and more people

2:04

have started borrowing ebooks from libraries.

2:07

And when you're borrowing a book, you are not

2:09

buying it. Kathy actually saw her

2:11

royalties take a hit. And she's like,

2:14

I think it's because of all these ebooks. I

2:16

noticed a difference they started going

2:18

to the libraries. I mean, it wasn't a huge

2:20

amount. It didn't

2:21

exactly knock me down in income

2:23

level or anything. But

2:25

you still notice it. This

2:27

has put Kathy in a place she never

2:29

expected to be conflicted about

2:31

the friendly library.

2:33

Libraries are wonderful things. but

2:36

it is so much easier

2:37

to lend out an e book than it is

2:39

to lend out a hard

2:40

copy book. So if

2:42

everyone is giving your book away,

2:45

How can you ever hope to make a living?

2:47

As a writer.

2:48

Even though it impacts your bottom line,

2:50

others like Kathy don't get much

2:52

say in this

2:53

issue. I think we all feel a little

2:55

bit helpless, you It's

2:57

it's gonna be a fight between these two.

2:59

Publishers and libraries, Publishers

3:01

who sell books like Kathy's

3:03

and libraries who put them in the hands

3:05

of millions of readers. have

3:08

turned former allies into bitter enemies,

3:11

fighting over every penny.

3:15

Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Dave

3:17

Blanchard. And I'm Amanda Arancik.

3:20

Every industry has had to reckon with a

3:22

digital version of itself. In

3:24

the world of books, then technological transition

3:26

has been brutal. And now

3:28

all the players feel like they are fighting

3:31

for the

3:31

very right to exist. Today on

3:33

the show, how a tiny little change,

3:35

a book on a screen, through

3:38

an entire industry into war

3:40

with

3:40

itself.

3:48

You know, with

3:51

the food that went going up here. You

3:53

may have heard our episodes about starting

3:55

planet money records, but

3:57

you didn't hear everything. How about money

3:59

planet

3:59

records? Econ box.

4:02

World tombs. naming

4:05

a record

4:05

label, for instance, harder than

4:07

it sounds. Elastic good. Records.

4:10

Well, that's what I call

4:11

lucrative IP. Nice. also

4:13

like Allen Green's fun records. So that's

4:15

pretty good. That's very Inside

4:18

the lunch of Planet Many Records.

4:21

That's in our next bonus episode.

4:23

Sign up to hear it and support public

4:25

media in the process at the link in

4:27

our episode notes.

4:40

Now, we are going to hear from the

4:42

two sides of this war in the book world.

4:44

There's the libraries and the book

4:46

publishers. We're gonna start with the libraries.

4:49

Libraries

4:49

are led by people who wanna get

4:51

information to the public. People

4:54

like Michael Blackwell, when he was younger, he

4:56

was thinking about what to do with his life and he had

4:58

this lightning bolt moment. I

5:00

know. I love to read. I'll become

5:02

a librarian. So he

5:04

did it. He became a librarian. And

5:06

now he's the director of a county library

5:08

in Maryland. But

5:10

librarians don't actually do what he thought

5:12

they did. I've never been paid

5:14

to read on the job librarian that sit

5:16

around reading books that would be a

5:18

lovely career, wouldn't it? It

5:20

would. but

5:21

Michael didn't get to read books

5:23

in a comfy chair all day. Regardless,

5:26

he still loves his job. And when he

5:28

started as a librarian, Bookworld was

5:30

peaceful. Libraries and publishers

5:33

living in harmony. Which is kind

5:35

of amazing

5:35

if you think about it because the library

5:38

is a strange beast.

5:40

It is an institution that gives away

5:42

things you'd otherwise have to go pay

5:44

money for. Like, how are libraries

5:46

even allowed shouldn't that violate

5:48

copyright law?

5:49

Michael says, nope. In fact,

5:52

library lending is protected by

5:53

copyright law. We own that

5:56

content. we can

5:58

freely lend it to anybody.

6:00

And that's that's a legal protection

6:03

matter. Yes. That's that's enshrined in the

6:05

copyright act. This is

6:07

called the first sale doctrine.

6:09

Someone who buys a book can do whatever

6:11

they want with it. They can display it. They can lend it.

6:13

They can sell it. And this

6:15

rule is why these strange things

6:17

called libraries can exist. This

6:20

arrangement has been true for so long that

6:22

no one in the book world questioned it.

6:24

the ecosystem wasn't balanced.

6:26

This was when libraries mostly dealt

6:28

with physical books. Then

6:31

in late October two thousand and eight,

6:33

the e book a new technology that had

6:35

been trying to find its way for a few years,

6:37

finally gets its moment.

6:39

It's Oprah moment.

6:43

Alright. So here

6:45

we go to Kendal Class. Oprah

6:47

hosts a Kendal Class. with who

6:49

else but Amazon CEO, Jeff

6:51

Bezos, that they're on stage

6:53

and the studio audience reach dutifully

6:56

holdingkindles. Bezos is

6:58

trying to explain how to

7:00

use this new device. It's like weirdly

7:02

bad at it. To wake it

7:04

up, You hold down the alt key.

7:06

The alt key is the one on the bottom left.

7:08

And while you're holding the alt key down, press

7:10

the font size key. It's on the lower

7:12

right.

7:13

Oprah's looking a little skeptical. She

7:15

keeps having to translate from Bezos

7:17

into English. After a few minutes though,

7:20

Oprah appears to be convinced. Yeah.

7:22

Gindles seems like a great new way to

7:24

read books. Unbelievable.

7:26

It's fantastic. I hope you guys enjoy

7:28

it. I think you will.

7:29

Thank you.

7:34

With that sprinkling of Oprah's magic

7:36

dust, the ebook

7:37

had finally arrived.

7:39

But with it came this problem,

7:41

which upset that balance that libraries

7:43

and publishers had found.

7:44

Because, of course, ebooks are different

7:47

from physical book. in two specific ways

7:49

that are really important for libraries.

7:51

Number one, ebooks never

7:53

wear out. Electronic files have

7:55

infinitely long lives.

7:57

and I'd never really thought about this, but physical

8:00

books have a shelf life. Michael,

8:02

the librarian. He knows this

8:04

well. a typical circulation

8:06

period for a quality hard

8:08

cover somewhere between

8:11

thirty to a

8:13

hundred circulations and it's probably

8:15

going to wear out. What are

8:17

some of the worst things that you've seen?

8:20

when you've gotten a physical book back at

8:22

the library in terms of of wear and

8:24

tear. Oh, well, you

8:26

know, the the the brand new book with

8:28

the coffee staying on it. Dog

8:30

behavior books that come back chewed up,

8:32

and I have seen that. It

8:34

didn't work. Yeah. Podgy

8:36

training books that you're

8:39

wondering exactly what is on

8:41

them. God.

8:43

Now, ebooks, they exist up

8:45

in the cloud. away from

8:47

the minuses of coffee and puppies

8:49

and peeing babies. Okay.

8:51

So that's one key difference between

8:53

ebooks and physical books. The

8:55

second difference A physical book can only be

8:57

lent out to one person at a

8:59

time, which means if libraries want

9:01

to lend them to multiple people at once, they have

9:03

to buy multiple copies. but

9:05

an ebook, in theory, a library

9:07

could buy one copy, put it

9:09

up online, and thousands of people could read

9:11

it at the same time. which starts

9:14

to seem a little unfair to

9:16

authors. Thousands of people sharing one single

9:18

library book? So

9:19

libraries and publishers collectively

9:22

agree. Let's all just pretend

9:24

that ebooks are still book

9:26

books subject to the rules of

9:27

the physical world. Because the physical

9:30

world that has worked for us for

9:32

generations. Now because

9:34

ebooks are digital, they don't

9:36

fall under the same copyright rules

9:38

as book books. instead like

9:40

a lot of digital media, they are

9:42

handled by licenses. So

9:44

instead of an able to buy an

9:46

ebook, We have to license

9:49

it under terms set by the

9:51

publisher. And

9:52

librarians and publishers

9:53

agree to some restrictions on

9:56

those licenses. restrictions that make

9:58

ebooks more like bookbooks.

9:59

First, they agree to limit

10:02

the number of people

10:02

who can borrow an e book.

10:04

one

10:04

person using it at a time, the same

10:07

way that one person would check out a

10:09

physical book at a time. If

10:11

libraries

10:11

wanna give the book to multiple

10:13

patrons at once, they will have to

10:15

buy multiple copies. And

10:17

second, libraries can't

10:19

just lend out an ebook infinitely.

10:22

There's a limit. For

10:24

example, HarperCollins books can be lent

10:26

out twenty six times.

10:28

After being loaned out twenty six

10:30

times, the ebook disappears from the

10:32

library's catalog the same way that a

10:34

book book would eventually have to be

10:36

taken off the shelf when it wore out.

10:38

Library will have to buy the ebook again

10:40

if they wanna keep lending it

10:42

out. Okay.

10:42

So, libraries and publishers have

10:44

found a new balance. It's

10:46

a little weird, but it works.

10:48

Then, in the mid-twenty tens,

10:50

Michael watches as something changes.

10:53

Two big things happen.

10:55

Number one, publishers push the

10:57

price of their ebook licenses

10:59

way up. Ebooks used to

11:01

cost about the same as physical books, which for

11:03

libraries was fifteen or sixteen

11:05

dollars. But at that time, they start

11:07

climbing to fifty or sixty

11:09

bucks. and publishers

11:11

add what Michael felt at the

11:13

time was this totally

11:14

arbitrary new

11:15

term. The license is gonna

11:18

expire after two years. even if no

11:20

one checks that book out. For a small

11:21

library like Michaels, this means he

11:23

suddenly has to spend way more money

11:25

on ebooks. We've got fairly

11:28

limited budget.

11:30

It's about four hundred thousand a

11:32

year. Basically, if you spent your entire

11:34

catalog budget on ebooks,

11:36

you get eight thousand books basically in

11:39

a year, whereas with a

11:41

physical book, you could, you know,

11:43

buy almost three times as

11:45

many books That's correct. At this

11:47

point, librarians are getting

11:49

angry. Then in twenty nineteen, there is

11:51

another huge change. one

11:53

of major publishers, McMillan, announces that

11:56

it is going to introduce what

11:58

librarians called an embargo.

11:59

McMillan said, when a

12:02

new book comes out, libraries can

12:04

only get one copy of an

12:06

ebook for the first eight weeks after

12:08

release. which is like obviously the

12:10

biggest time for a new book.

12:12

This would mean that a lot of library

12:14

users would go to borrow that new

12:16

book. They're super excited about and

12:18

then they would join the waitlist.

12:20

And people would look at well, I'm number

12:22

two thousand three hundred and forty two

12:24

on the list for this in say a

12:26

large lime brewery. system

12:29

and be discouraged. Michael

12:31

is like this crosses a

12:33

huge line. Libraries

12:35

have always been able to decide what

12:37

books they want to buy. Libraries

12:39

exist to give people access to those

12:41

books. And now McMillan is saying,

12:43

we decide what books you can access

12:45

and when. And Michael's like,

12:47

what? Just so publishers can rake in more

12:49

money. To Michael, this plan

12:51

threatens everything libraries stand

12:53

for. we can no longer fulfill our

12:55

basic mission of sharing

12:57

information. And

12:59

it

13:00

basically completely undermines

13:03

the library's reason for existing.

13:05

So

13:05

Michael and a group of librarians decide

13:07

they are

13:08

not going to take it anymore.

13:10

The American Library Association starts a

13:12

petition. The goal,

13:14

get McMillan to back down.

13:16

Drop

13:16

the embargo. they

13:18

get over a hundred and sixty thousand signatures

13:21

online. And then they're like, let's bring these

13:23

digital signatures into the physical

13:25

world. they print out all the

13:27

signatures, thousands of pages, and stack

13:29

them up into boxes. Then on

13:31

October thirtieth, twenty nineteen,

13:33

the librarian's storm McMillan's

13:35

offices in Manhattan. By which we

13:37

mean they very respectfully, presumably,

13:40

quietly, hand deliver

13:42

boxes of signed petitions. These

13:43

are after all librarians.

13:45

Word comes up from the

13:47

lobby that there's a bunch of people outside delivering

13:49

their boxes of signed

13:52

petitions to, you know, the

13:55

horrible John Sergeant at McMillan.

13:57

This is horrible John Sergeant

13:59

at McMillan. He was the CEO of

14:01

McMillan at the time, and he was the

14:03

man behind the embargo and the

14:05

price hikes and all of Michael the librarian's

14:07

e book problems. At

14:09

that moment, October twenty nineteen, he

14:11

is public enemy number one

14:13

for America's librarians? At

14:16

the peak of it, I was probably getting fifteen

14:18

or twenty letters

14:21

a day. And they were

14:23

nasty, you know, pure, visceral. But

14:25

John, he defends everything

14:27

he did in this ebook fight. After

14:30

the break, we hear the publisher's

14:32

side of the

14:33

story.

14:39

So,

14:43

we've heard the library's side of the

14:45

story. Now, it's time to hear the

14:47

publisher's side. or at least

14:49

a publisher's side.

14:50

John and MacMillan was the most

14:52

aggressive of the publishers when it came

14:54

to library ebook lending. Other

14:57

publishers were maybe more

14:59

diplomatic with libraries. But most

15:01

of the big shops have followed similar

15:03

policies of raising prices on

15:05

ebooks. And we'll preface this

15:07

by saying that a funny thing with this

15:09

story is that everyone at some point talks

15:11

about how much love they have for

15:13

all the other parties involved. authors

15:15

love libraries. Publishers

15:17

love libraries. Libraries

15:19

love authors. And everyone

15:21

hates Amazon. Amazon supports NPR and

15:23

PACE to distribute some of our content.

15:25

John, the publisher, he says

15:27

he loves

15:28

libraries too. a

15:30

ton of people in publishing had

15:32

grown up, spending

15:33

their time in libraries, and

15:36

hugely passionate about libraries.

15:37

So it was always a the

15:39

thing was always we love libraries who wanna do

15:42

everything we can to support

15:42

them. But John says

15:44

that feeling the libraries had that

15:46

this whole system was a threat to their existence?

15:49

He's like, no no

15:51

no libraries are a threat

15:53

to publishers. John's

15:55

problem with ebooks and libraries,

15:57

it is too darn

15:59

easy to get them.

16:00

That really becomes true for John in the

16:03

twenty tens. when a new app comes along

16:05

called Libby. Libby for those who

16:07

don't use it is an app that lets you search

16:09

your library for ebooks and then

16:11

easily sync them and send them to your

16:13

e reader. The app makes it incredibly easy

16:15

to borrow books and place holds

16:18

much easier than when books were all

16:20

physical. In the old days, I

16:22

wanna check a book at

16:22

a library. I get my car. I

16:25

drive over there. I go into the

16:27

library. I find the book.

16:28

I take it to the front.

16:30

Take it home. I'm three quarters away

16:33

through. My two weeks is up. What

16:34

am I gonna do? I'm trying to get back the wire and

16:36

check it out again.

16:37

There's a waiting list. I can do that.

16:39

And then, okay, I'm just gonna keep it,

16:41

and then here comes

16:42

your library fine. With

16:43

ebooks, there is none of that.

16:46

Suddenly,

16:46

it's

16:47

free and

16:49

it's frictionless.

16:50

frictionless. Great for

16:53

readers, bad for publishers,

16:55

Stone says, because people can so

16:57

easily get the book without paying for

16:59

it. Sure. Sometimes there's still a

17:01

waitlist, but some people have

17:03

figured out ways around that.

17:05

I

17:05

have a friend right now who has

17:07

eleven library cards. Mhmm.

17:09

Never waits for best selling book.

17:13

used to spend five hundred dollars a

17:15

year on books -- Right. -- hasn't spent a

17:17

penny.

17:17

John says that there are some library branches

17:20

that only require like a cell

17:22

phone number. no proof of

17:24

residency. So some people

17:26

take advantage of that,

17:27

Dave.

17:29

some people. I mean, I

17:31

have to admit that I am one of

17:33

those people on a smaller scale. I have

17:35

a library card in Portland, Oregon where

17:38

I live. And I also have one in Washington DC

17:40

where I used to live. If something

17:42

isn't available in Portland, I

17:44

can maybe get the ebook from the

17:46

DC library on

17:48

lip be. Dave hates authors. Anyway,

17:50

not long after Libby took off,

17:52

John remembers a meeting of the digital

17:54

team at McMillan. They're all sitting around and they

17:56

are fixated on this one

17:59

chart. There's a

17:59

line showing how many ebooks

18:02

are being borrowed from libraries. Each

18:04

month that line was pretty steady.

18:06

And then

18:06

suddenly, it started to

18:09

curve, and

18:09

then the curve got steep,

18:11

and then

18:12

it got steeper. And you

18:14

could see month by month, the curve was

18:16

not only going up, it was getting steeper

18:18

every month. And you you looked at

18:20

the graph and you say, Oh my. If

18:23

this keeps going, it's

18:25

gonna be really bad, really fast.

18:27

John's like

18:28

six more months of this, More and

18:30

more people getting their ebooks from libraries,

18:32

that's people not buying books and

18:34

we're gonna be out of a job. If

18:36

no one's buying books, publishers

18:38

can't survive, bookstores can't

18:41

survive, writers can't survive.

18:43

That author who writes

18:43

great mysteries, who sells

18:46

thirty

18:46

thousand copies instead of three hundred

18:48

thousand copies, he doesn't

18:50

have enough money to break anymore. He

18:52

can't

18:52

make a living and writing. Of course,

18:54

we have heard a similar story in the music

18:57

industry. It is harder for musicians to make

18:59

money in the age of streaming.

19:01

John worries that that's what's happening here.

19:03

That libraries are like the Spotify of

19:05

the Book World. So he

19:08

decides we have to make it harder for

19:10

people to borrow ebooks from

19:12

libraries. Overdrive, the company that makes

19:14

Libby, they reject John's

19:16

conclusions here. They told us, Libby

19:18

allows people to discover new books and

19:20

authors, and they argue Libby and

19:22

Libraries help drive sales of print

19:24

books and ebooks. and most everyone in world

19:26

agrees that the transition to digital hasn't

19:28

been nearly as complete as it has in

19:30

the music world. People still love

19:32

to buy book books. But

19:35

John, looking at that chart,

19:37

still sees the growth of ebook lending

19:39

and libraries as a huge

19:41

threat. So he has

19:41

an idea about how to

19:43

slow it down.

19:44

Libraries, you know, they're not

19:47

rich.

19:47

And the thing that we realize

19:49

is libraries only have so much money. Right. They

19:51

have a limited budget. Right? Right. And as

19:53

long as we the price is high enough, they

19:56

wouldn't have the budget.

19:58

This is

19:58

that moment when Michael the librarian

20:00

saw his ebook prices

20:02

start to surge. when he realizes that his library's

20:04

catalog is gonna be a lot more expensive and

20:07

therefore a lot smaller. That's

20:09

exactly what John, the

20:11

publisher wanted, he says it was key to

20:13

McMillan survival. The next

20:15

thing

20:15

John did was the big one.

20:17

The thing that librarians called the embargo

20:19

where they had to wait to buy new

20:21

bestsellers. John,

20:22

he calls it windowing. There's

20:24

a window of

20:25

time when libraries can't buy these

20:27

new books. When John announced it, he

20:29

said in the US, forty five

20:31

percent of McMillan's ebook reads were

20:34

borrowed from

20:34

libraries. John's like, look, this

20:36

is how the movie business has done it forever.

20:38

Something comes out. You wanna see it.

20:41

You can't get it on day You're supposed to pay

20:43

to see it in theaters first. That's how

20:45

movie studios make money. Why shouldn't

20:47

book publishers do the same

20:49

thing? Librarians?

20:50

did not see it that way. This

20:52

to them was the nuclear button and they

20:54

became quite intense about it. Now

20:56

we are

20:56

back full circle to the moment when

20:58

the world of John publisher,

21:02

slams right into the world of Michael, the

21:04

librarian. The moment when

21:06

librarians bang down the door of John's

21:08

office with their boxes of petitions.

21:10

we tried to convince John to tell us

21:12

all about the

21:12

effect that protest had on him. I'd

21:15

prefer not to comment on

21:17

that. What what did you guys do all those boxes afterwards?

21:19

Pro probably fast if

21:21

I not comment on that either.

21:24

We have so many

21:26

questions about all those signatures. Let's

21:30

put it this way.

21:32

I I guess it's fair to say, the

21:35

physical signatures had

21:37

no

21:37

effect on me whatsoever. The

21:40

librarian protest fails. John and

21:42

McMillan are unmoved. The

21:44

windowing policy stays in

21:46

place and librarians will

21:48

just have to deal with it.

21:50

Now, this all goes down in October

21:51

twenty nineteen. Obviously, a

21:53

few months later, the world

21:55

changes. Of course, everyone

21:57

has their March twenty twenty

21:59

story And for

21:59

Michael, the librarian, it was pretty

22:02

awful. He had to close his library. We

22:03

put out on social media and our

22:06

website, and we literally lock

22:08

the doors. Did you a sign the window? Yes.

22:10

Oh,

22:10

yes. The library is

22:13

closed due to pandemic

22:15

conditions. We'll be open as soon

22:17

as we can. We regret the inconvenience.

22:19

How was it putting that

22:21

up? I've

22:23

we I

22:27

I did I'm

22:29

probably gonna do it again here. IIII

22:32

cried. It was so hard

22:34

For Michael, what could be worse than

22:36

people not being able to use their local

22:39

library? And then he

22:41

realizes this

22:41

ebook fight just became more

22:43

important than ever. With libraries closed,

22:46

ebooks were suddenly the way

22:48

that everyone could access books.

22:50

Now Michael has only become

22:53

more motivated He's become an

22:55

organizer with

22:55

a group called Reader's First, which

22:57

pushes for easier

22:58

and less expensive access to ebooks.

23:00

He actually got Maryland lawmakers

23:02

to introduce a bill to try to

23:05

force publishers to lower their ebook

23:07

prices for libraries. And

23:09

then,

23:09

kind of amazingly passed

23:12

unanimously. But within a

23:13

year, a judge struck it down.

23:16

Victory was fleeting. So

23:18

Michael and other librarians around the country are still

23:20

pushing for new laws. John,

23:22

the publisher, he's obviously against any law

23:24

like that. He says the government shouldn't

23:26

be setting prices for ebooks, libraries

23:29

and publishers are just gonna have to figure it

23:31

out for themselves. That is

23:33

if they can work together after

23:35

all of this bitterness. The

23:37

days when everyone in the book world just loved

23:39

each other, those are long

23:41

gone, at least when it comes to ebooks.

23:44

authors are really divided by this.

23:46

Some have come down on the side of libraries,

23:48

some on the side of publishers.

23:50

And Michael, the librarian says

23:53

that these PLAYERS DO ALL STILL HAVE THE SAME

23:55

GOAL AND THAT THERE SHOULD BE A WAY TO WORK

23:57

IT OUT. Reporter: PUBLISHER ARE

23:58

NOT THE

23:59

BAD PEOPLE Librarians

24:02

are not the bad people.authors

24:04

are certainly not the

24:06

bad people. Ultimately,

24:09

we're all part of

24:11

a great enterprise of

24:13

providing quality information that

24:16

is essential in a

24:18

pluralistic democracy.

24:19

There has

24:20

been one ray of hope, one

24:22

small concession. When the pandemic

24:24

hit, John, the publisher sent out a

24:26

letter, a McMillan letterhead, It

24:28

was about the windowing policy, AKA, the

24:31

embargo. And given how many words have been

24:33

flying around on that topic, it is a

24:35

very short letter. two

24:37

paragraphs. He writes, there are times in life

24:39

when differences should be put aside.

24:42

The letter then goes on to

24:44

say basically Okay.

24:45

We get it. People need access

24:47

to ebooks right now.

24:48

So we are going to back down. We'll

24:51

get rid of windowing at

24:53

least temporarily.

24:53

It's a peace offering.

24:56

John has

24:56

since left McMillan. The

24:59

librarians, they're still bracing for the return

25:01

of the windowing policy or

25:03

other changes to e book licenses. So

25:05

far, though, that windowing policy has

25:07

not been reinstated.

25:20

Do you have

25:23

a favorite part of the tax code?

25:25

A subsection? You just can't stop

25:27

talking about it at cocktail parties?

25:30

Maybe it's benefited you personally, or

25:32

maybe it's appalling to you personally.

25:34

Whatever it is, we wanna hear

25:37

about it, Send a voice memo to planet money

25:39

at MPR dot org. You can

25:41

also find us on social media. We are

25:43

at planet money. Our show today was

25:45

produced by Sam Yellowbore's guest

25:47

sler with help from Rubin who was mastered by

25:49

James Willitson edited by Sally Helm.

25:51

Just Jane is her acting executive

25:54

producer Thanks to Rose

25:56

Friedman, Ruth Spiro, Drew

25:58

Richard, Doug Preston, Mary

25:59

Risenberger, John McKay,

26:02

Terry Hart, and Miranda Builders. I'm Dave

26:03

Blanchard. And I'm Amanda Arancic. This

26:06

is NPR. Thanks

26:08

for listening.