LIBRARY.NU NO MORE: Here's a poignant example of a supply-and-demand mismatch: book publishers recently used an injunction to shut down Library.nu and cyberlocker ifile.it--BitTorrent-like sites for serious nonfiction books. The traditional publishers called it stealing, as the sites were making available 400,000 texts and made $11 million along the way. But in this thoughtful blog post, one long-time user notes that those sites help readers in the developing world who are eager to read the works but can't get them online at an affordable price. As a writer, EdSurge's Betsy Corcoran likes copyright--but agrees there's a radical mismatch in the pricing of these works. Sounds like someone needs to publish these books at a significantly lower price. Hey, ElevenLearning, what do you think? (And hat tip to David Miller at SlugBooks for the scoop.)
