michel fraysse michel.fraysse@ut-capitole
TRANSCRIPT
E-books Lending in Libraries , legal obstacles and opportunities
Michel [email protected]
INCONECSS, Berlin 19 April 2016
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
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Is there a right to e-read ?
In 2013, The Eblida (European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations) launched a right to e-readcampaign : « 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 anycommercially available eBook without embargo »
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The legal landscape behind the curtain
Is there really « a right to e-read » ? Do copyright lawsrecognize the right to e-read and e-lending ?
The legal answer is NO (at the moment…)
What are the main legal obstacles ?
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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’llnever 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 saleCompare with print books : in France, a 2003 Act (« loi ») on print books lending (Transposal of European Directive 19 November 1992) but nothing for ebooksAccording to this « loi », an author cannot contest the loan of his books by a lending library. This concerns only printed books
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And other legal issues…
The definition of the ebook itself is not clearThe tax problem
The VAT rateThe cost issue ; according to EU law, an ebook is a service (hence the VAT is higher)The European Commission : France, Luxembourg and Italyinfrige 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 thanprinted books ?
One just acquires a licence, there is no exhaustion of rightsfor electronic documents
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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.
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Nathan Pyle/BuzzFeed
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 Printbooks 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 coursesE-learning is booming
Let the user choose, offer this possibility
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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) :
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
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Microeconomic theory Mas-Colell , Andreu Oxford UP 41 NOAdvanced macroeconomics Romer , David McGraw Hill Irwin 17 NOA primer in game theory Gibbons , Robert Harvester Wheatsheaf 15 NOCompetition policy : theory and practice Motta , Massimo Cambride UP 15 NOEconometric theory and methods Davidson , Russell Oxford Up 15 NO
What we do to develop the use of e-books in academiclibraries
Workshops and communicationHow to insert e-books chapters in online coursesEfficient Communication, tutorials, visibilityEbook display with QR codes on reading listsE-Bibliography with direct links
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And in French Public Libraries : the PNB (Digital li brary loan)
The French PNB experiment : a service for public librariesInspired by prenumerique.ca (Canada)The Paris Public Libraries network offer PNB since november 2015
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• Check out 3 e-books• More than 3000
commercial books (+ public domain titles)
• Epub only (no kindle)
• 1 e-book can be checkedout by 10 patrons at the same time
• After 30 loans, the librarymust « purchase » the e-book again
The future ? The legal perspectives
Legal perspectives could be the key to «set free » ebooklending in EuropeE-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 caseThe reform of European Copyright Law : hoping that a copyright reform will unlock ebooks lending. Still, it won’t givea right to e-read if the publishers do not want to sell thesebooks on e-formatAccess 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
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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 regulationof 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)
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