In my Professional/Social Aspects of Information Services class, we’re learning about copyright and I have a question that I would like to ask the void. PLCMC charges $2 for new books and DVDs and labels them as “Rental” fiction. The check-out time is shorter by a week, and you can’t put them on hold. Now, my question is this – how are they allowed to charge money to lend something that is copyrighted? My professor seems to think this is a little fishy and I had never thought of it like that before. She says it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen and I’m just wondering if there is something in library policy that allows them to do that. I can certainly understand why they do it, because for instance, when the new Janet Evanovich books comes out, there will be hundreds of holds on it already, so they like to have some for people who don’t want to wait and don’t mind paying the $2. I did it a few times, because well, I’m impatient and I wanted to read my book NOW dangit. Does anyone know the answer to my question? I don’t mean to be nosey and poke around where I might not belong, but I think that as a library student I should be allowed to ask questions like this, right??? 
Interesting question. How does Blockbuster deal with this? Is the leasing of the item for profit built in to the purchasing fee?
Comment by Natalie Nation — May 21, 2008 @ 2:39 pm