EU ruling on e-lending concerns European publishers

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the chief judicial authority of the EU, has ruled that lending of digital books in libraries should be treated the same as the lending of physical books, reports the Bookseller. The ruling concerns the ‘one copy, one user’ rule, which prevents libraries from lending out more than one copy of an ebook at a time. The CJEU has judged the model to be fair under the law and stated that digital books and physical books should be treated the same by libraries, provided that authors obtain fair remuneration. The Federation of European Publishers (FEP) has responded with concern, saying ruling in favour of unrestricted digital lending would ‘have a significant impact on the commercial market’. It is ‘difficult to compete in a market in which virtually the identical product is available for free’, said the FEP in a statement, and added that the reason to keep format distinct is because ‘digital “lending” in fact means copying’. UK library body the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) welcomed the ruling, with CILIP chief executive Nick Poole stating the current ‘copyright law restricts the choice of e-books the public can borrow and flexibility with which libraries can lend’.

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