Brussels, 27/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The lending of electronic books should be governed by the same rules as those for traditional books. This should be the “dynamic” interpretation of the European legislation elaborated in the digital era, according to Advocate General Maciej Szpunar.
In his conclusions, presented to the court of the Court of Justice to the European Union (C-147/15) on Thursday 16 June, Szpunar gave his opinion on the question of the rules for electronic books lent by public libraries. Should they be based on the 2006 directive on the right to lend and borrow traditional paper books?
His answer was clearly 'yes', even though the European legislator had not thought of electronic books when drafting this directive. According to the Advocate General they need a “dynamic” and “evolving” interpretation of this directive, which stipulates that the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit such rentals and loans belongs to the author of the work. A derogation to this rule is possible for public loans, on the condition that the authors at least obtain fair remuneration. He argued that this approach is necessary because it is now mainly the publishers and other intermediaries in the electronic book trade who are the main beneficiaries of library loans, due to licensing agreements. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)