Is it legal to start a lending library? I want to lend out business books to small businesses for research?
tstevens_bb asked:
All of the work is factual, mostly accounting and business skill building books. I want small businesses who are customers of ours to be able to use these guides to research and hopefully better themselves and their business. I do not intend to sell or copy the materials, just lend them out to whomever is interested. Does this qualify under the Fair Use act of US Copyright law?
Royal
All of the work is factual, mostly accounting and business skill building books. I want small businesses who are customers of ours to be able to use these guides to research and hopefully better themselves and their business. I do not intend to sell or copy the materials, just lend them out to whomever is interested. Does this qualify under the Fair Use act of US Copyright law?
Royal
I have never hear of any restrictions on lending books, my concern would be if you implied that it was ok for the customer to copy any of the material.
I been told that it is not consider Fair Use to copy material for business use, but that is ok WITHIN LIMITS to copy material for personal use.
It is legal to lend books, however, as a business proposition you would be in competition with your local public library where business books can be borrowed for free. Unless your collection is much, much better in some way, it will be difficult to compete with a competitor offering similar information for free. Also, keeping even a small library organized and keeping track of who has what is not as easy as you might think. You might want to simply check the online catalog of your local public library and refer your small business customers to appropriate titles and save yourself the hassle.