E-books Lending in Libraries , legal obstacles and opportunities

Michel Frayssemichel.fraysse@ut-capitole.fr

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

The battle of the books, stop sibling rivalry !

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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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La lecture (1921). Leon Kamir-Kaufman (Poland, 1872-1933)Pastel on paper. Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Merci, Danke, Thank you