Reflections on Class (September 20)

Class began with an interesting discussion on e-books and how many times libraries should be allowed to offer a particular copy. It was mentioned that twenty-six might be a good number because librarians would have to replace a hard copy after that many check-outs anyway. Is this true? Does it depend on the library? The type of book hardcover, soft cover?
 In addition, it was also brought up whether or not the price of e-books is fair. I have wondered this myself. Mostly because I by most of my books from half price bookstores, or on Amazon so to pay anything near full price is almost against my religion.
Someone brought up the fact that the cost to distribute and produce the e-books is much less than what it takes to distribute and produce physical copies. So why then are the copies of the e-books so close to the prices of the physical copies? I know the publisher and author want to make just as much money, but is the e-book worth the same price as a real book. You will never be able to resell it because you are just leasing it not buying it, you're not supposed to really give it away, and lending it out can be a problem as well. If I lend out my kindle I can't have access to the rest of my books on it while it is gone.
While I do really appreciate the advantages of my kindle such as not having to lug an entire suitcase of books on vacation and carrying around a bookstore in my purse, there are still the advantages of the physical copies such as if one of my physical copies is submersed in water, stolen, or lost than I don't lose my entire collection of books. In addition, while kindle batteries can run low I don't have to plug in my physical book. Thus, the pros and cons, at this point I don't feel like I could live without either physical books or my kindle. Especially because Borders has gone out of business and now it is much harder to find easy access to book stores.
The talk of e-books then led to an in depth discussion of contractual law, and the three different types Public Law, Regulation, and Common Law (or law produced by judicial law (interpretation of law). We then discussed the difference between copyright, patent, and trademark. One of the more interesting things we talked about was the idea of First Sale Doctrine, which is when something moves over from being intellectual property to just property. This doesn't exist in copy law, but has never the less started being enforced by our courts. For example, this deals with the fact that once somebody buys a book they are allowed to resell it at any price they ask without problem.
This class was very much an experience Dr. Lankes at one point became very impassioned on the topic of Librarians being the conduit for change. The library profession cannot remain static and impartial, we cannot just be venues (this was very adamantly stated by Dr. Lankes) instead we have to promote and instigate change and the "creation of knowledge" in our respective communities.