some books might become inaccessible by the poor in developing countries. But what about the poor in developed countries, you ask? Hard question to answer.
Isn't the exact reverse more likely? You only ever need one copy of a book to make more copies. All that this could lead to is a (futile) continuation of the trend of US publishers changing versions of a book sold directly in other countries. But developing country cheap copy publishers can just copy a US version and/or a domestic version of the book.
So, a "stratification" of books (US version, domestic version + digital versions) will be continue to be available to developing countries and pirates.
The real difficulties will be the poor/legal prices in the US. I suspect students photocopying library books will only increase in fashion.
Isn't the exact reverse more likely? You only ever need one copy of a book to make more copies. All that this could lead to is a (futile) continuation of the trend of US publishers changing versions of a book sold directly in other countries. But developing country cheap copy publishers can just copy a US version and/or a domestic version of the book.
So, a "stratification" of books (US version, domestic version + digital versions) will be continue to be available to developing countries and pirates.
The real difficulties will be the poor/legal prices in the US. I suspect students photocopying library books will only increase in fashion.