"After COVID boom, ebook aggregators face licensing questions from Congress"

[tozka]

After COVID boom, ebook aggregators face licensing questions from Congress - The Verge

A Democratic senator launched an investigation into how publishers license ebooks to libraries on Thursday, calling on nine major ebook aggregators to provide details on the licensing agreements they make with libraries.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), along with Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), sent letters demanding that aggregators like Overdrive and EBSCO provide them with examples of standard ebook licensing agreements for every major publisher they work with, including Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.

“Many libraries face financial and practical challenges in making e-books available to their patrons, which jeopardizes their ability to fulfill their mission,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is our understanding that these difficulties arise because e-books are typically offered under more expensive and limited licensing agreements, unlike print books that libraries can typically purchase, own, and lend on their own terms.”

In September, Wyden and Eshoo first questioned publishers over the terms they set for ebook licensing. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many public libraries to shut down in-person service, and people began using online services like Overdrive’s Libby app to borrow digital books in lieu of physical copies. “Ensuring that libraries can offer an array of resources, including e-books, is essential to promoting equity in education and access to information,” the lawmakers wrote to Penguin Random House earlier this year.

Major publishers have sued organizations in the past over copyright violations for offering free copies of ebooks. In June 2020, Hachette, Penguin Random House, Wiley, and HarperCollins filed suit against the Internet Archive for copyright violations related to the Open Library project. The project launched in 2006 and allowed users to borrow ebooks scanned from physical copies of books.

In Thursday’s letters, the lawmakers highlighted how digital versions of books can be more accessible to people with disabilities. “In recent years, e-books have been a growing part of library catalogs. Not only do many library users prefer to borrow e-books, but digital options can provide greater accessibility for Americans who have disabilities, face mobility challenges, or live in remote areas,” they said.

Comments

[amalthia]

Thanks for sharing this link!

[thewayne]

Go Ron! I really like him!

I work in an academic library. Our ebooks aren't licensed like that, they're PDFs of text books (mostly), not popular stuff. But the way ebook licensing works really sucks. Literally, after 50ish lends, that copy of the ebook vanishes and has to be repurchased! Can you imagine where public libraries would be if The Twilight Saga books vanished after 50 lends? The Mockingbird books? Harry Potter? Etc.

Then you look at places like L.A. or NY Public Libraries who'll buy literally 100 ebook copies of the Newest Hotness to try to fulfill reader demand, and still end up with hundreds of people waiting for an ebook copy. They have huge budgets and still end up spending fortunes on ebooks. The publishers must drool when New Hotnesses release, just waiting for those two library systems to call.

[yourlibrarian]

Finally someone does something! The music industry, the big publishers, they're all the same -- pay the creators a pittance and give them unfair contracts, then exploit the market as much as they can.

[pauamma]

About time someone asked them pointed questions. (But hasn't that been going on long before Covid-19 entered the picture? Or are you saying it got worse then/since?)

[tozka]

Libraries started boycotting certain publishers in 2019 (https://ebooks.dreamwidth.org/94590.html) because of their library-specific restrictions, but I think this is the first time the government has gotten involved in the issue.

[pauamma]

Thanks.

[lokifan]

Oh, interesting.