alt Hacker News> it would be easier for them to distribute the work after the copyright of the work expires
Copyright does not expire for a very long time. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released ~30 years ago in 1997. It remains protected for the duration of the life of the author (J.K. Rowling) plus 70 years.
Given actuarial tables from the UK[1], this works out to be around ~95 years from now (~2120).
[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...
Certainly. But the rare books under discussion are closer to the end of their life and less likely to have been already digitized.
The library of congress does distribute some digitized works that are out of copyright. And it does digitize some works for archival and distribution, but having additional works digitized for (eventual) public use could be nice.