Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner asks an intriguing question about public libraries on his blog: “If there was no such thing today as the public library and someone like Bill Gates proposed to establish them in cities and towns across the U.S. (much like Andrew Carnegie once did), what would happen?” His hypothesis is that publishers might actually try to block the initiative; “given the current state of debate about intellectual property, can you imagine modern publishers being willing to sell one copy of a book and then have the owner let an unlimited number of strangers borrow it?” he asks.
The reasoning seems solid enough, and yet I can’t help wondering if that’s really how contemporary publishers would react—and not just because nobody wants to be the meanie who hates libraries. So, come on, publishing execs: tell us why you’d let a thousand libraries bloom.