E-books Lending in Libraries, legal obstacles and opportunities INCONECSS, Berlin 19 April 2016 Michel Fraysse [email protected] Is there a right to e-read ? The legal landscape The « resistance » against e-books and e-reading How to promote e-reading Legal perspectives for the future 22/04/2016 2 Is there a right to e-read ? In 2013, The Eblida (European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations) launched a right to e-read campaign : « European citizens have the right to e-read ! They should benefit from this right in libraries. It should therefore be possible for libraries to legally lend e-books ». «We need an updated, modern copyright framework ! “ In 2014, IFLA launched an eLending background paper, with a set of guiding principles on copyright, e-lending and definition of ebooks, “A library must have the right to license and/or purchase any commercially available eBook without embargo » 22/04/2016 3 The legal landscape behind the curtain Is there really « a right to e-read » ? Do copyright laws recognize the right to e-read and e-lending ? The legal answer is NO (at the moment…) What are the main legal obstacles ? 22/04/2016 4 The 2 main legal obstacles 1 There is no « right to publish » on digital format The « Milan Kundera anguish » : Milan Kundera contractually forbids e-version of his novels (see http://www.complete-review.com/saloon/archive/201207b.htm#ct1 and http://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/repliques/le-livre-son-passe-son-avenir ) Mr X. Professor of Law at Toulouse 1 Capitole university « I’ll never let my publisher sell an electronic version of my book unless you demonstrate I won’t lose money with the sales of the printed version » 2 There is no legal obligation to offer e-lending even if the e-book version is available for sale Compare with print books : in France, a 2003 Act (« loi ») on print books lending (Transposal of European Directive 19 November 1992) but nothing for ebooks According to this « loi », an author cannot contest the loan of his books by a lending library. This concerns only printed books 22/04/2016 5 And other legal issues… The definition of the ebook itself is not clear The tax problem The VAT rate The cost issue ; according to EU law, an ebook is a service (hence the VAT is higher) The European Commission : France, Luxembourg and Italy infrige EU law with a low VAT rate (5,5 % instead of 20 % for France) Is there a chance for ebooks if they are more expensive than printed books ? One just acquires a licence, there is no exhaustion of rights for electronic documents 22/04/2016 6 A strong resistance against e-books Is there a demand for ebooks ? A strong campaign against ebooks : « The e-book is not a book » Jean-Luc Coudray « E-reading is not reading », Andrew Piper With convincing arguments : Nicholas Carr on his blog : Students and academics prefere to use printed material. « While students prefer e-books when they need to search through a book quickly to find a particular fact or passage, they prefer printed books for deep, attentive reading » (based on the 2011 University of California Libraries Survey) Surveys tend to demonstrate digital natives prefer print books But libraries must offer the possibility. Nathan Pyle/BuzzFeed 22/04/2016 The battle of the books, stop sibling rivalry ! Nathan Pyle/BuzzFeed 22/04/2016 8 Students and professors want to e-read or at least test e-reading Some quotes : « I can’t find what I want » « I prefer the printed version» « it is too complicated with the DRM » « it is a passing fad » « it does not work in the bath… » « Ebooks and Print books are (or should be) the same » «by encouraging e-books librarians shoot themself in the foot (!) »… but : Essays are more and more online Professors insert e-books extracts in online courses E-learning is booming Let the user choose, offer this possibility 22/04/2016 9 Why it is difficult to promote e-reading ? Because everywhere « the major library ebooks vendors offer just a fraction of the titles academic librarians are likely to need » (William H. Walters) Example : the « top 5 » Manufacture Library printed books loans (Toulouse Capitole University, fall 2015) : Microeconomic theory Mas-Colell , Andreu Oxford UP 41 NO Advanced macroeconomics Romer , David McGraw Hill Irwin 17 NO A primer in game theory Gibbons , Robert Harvester Wheatsheaf 15 NO Competition policy : theory and practice Motta , Massimo Cambride UP 15 NO Econometric theory and methods Davidson , Russell Oxford Up 15 NO Toulouse 1 Capitole libraries offer more than 300.000 e-books for e- lending or streaming… but not always what the students and the academics want or need 22/04/2016 10 What we do to develop the use of e-books in academic libraries Workshops and communication How to insert e-books chapters in online courses Efficient Communication, tutorials, visibility Ebook display with QR codes on reading lists E-Bibliography with direct links 22/04/2016 11 And in French Public Libraries : the PNB (Digital library loan) The French PNB experiment : a service for public libraries Inspired by prenumerique.ca (Canada) The Paris Public Libraries network offer PNB since november 2015 • Check out 3 e-books • More than 3000 commercial books (+ public domain titles) • Epub only (no kindle) • 1 e-book can be checked out by 10 patrons at the same time • After 30 loans, the library must « purchase » the e- book again 22/04/2016 12 The future ? The legal perspectives Legal perspectives could be the key to «set free » ebook lending in Europe E-book lending Dutch preliminary ruling pending case C- 174/15 Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken : does the public lending right applies to ebooks ? The precedent of Usesoft vs Oracle case The reform of European Copyright Law : hoping that a copyright reform will unlock ebooks lending. Still, it won’t give a right to e-read if the publishers do not want to sell these books on e-format Access to an extense catalogue of e-books would boost the demand for e-learning by library users. Accessibility and the right to choose are crucial 22/04/2016 13 References and readings • IFLA 2014 eLending background paper http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/topics/e- lending/documents/revised_background_paper_elendingjuly2014.pdf • Séverine Dusollier : A manifesto for an e-lending limitation in copyright, Jipitec 2014 • Hilmar Schmundt : The digital paradox : how copyright laws keep e-books locked-up, Der Spiegel , International edition 2014 http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/how-copyright-laws-prevent-easy-sharing-of-e-books-a-961333.html • William H, Walters “E-books in Academic Libraries: Challenges for Acquisition and Collection Management”, Libraries and the Academy, 2013 • Sébastien Respingue-Perrin : Too early ? Too fast ? The French regulation of the e-book market, Liber Conference Munich, 2013 http://liber.library.uu.nl/index.php/lq/issue/view/513 • Nicholas Carr blog : http://www.roughtype.com • Cartoons are reproduced with the kind authorization of Nathan W. Pyle, illustrator (see http://www.buzzfeed.com/isaacfitzgerald/books-battle-royale#.jhKAJLexbM ) 22/04/2016 14 Merci, Danke, Thank you La lecture (1921). Leon Kamir-Kaufman (Poland, 1872-1933) Pastel on paper. Musée d’Orsay, Paris 22/04/2016 15.