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Re: Libraries may digitize books without permission, EU top court rules

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On 13/09/2014 17:27, Hils wrote:
> On 2014-09-13 14:13, Rich wrote:
>> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2606132/libraries-may-digitize-books-without-permission-eu-top-court-rules.html
>>
>>     European libraries may digitize books and make them available at
>>     electronic reading points without first gaining consent of the copyright
>>     holder, the highest European Union court ruled Thursday.
>>
>>     The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in a case in
>>     which the Technical University of Darmstadt digitized a book published
>>     by German publishing house Eugen Ulmer in order to make it available at
>>     its electronic reading posts, but refused to license the publisher's
>>     electronic textbooks.
>>
>>     Eugen Ulmer sought to prevent the university from digitizing the book
>>     and also wanted to prevent users of the library from printing out the
>>     book or copying it to a USB stick for use outside the library, the CJEU
>>     said in a news release.
>
> The suggestion appears to be that such e-books should only be made
> available within the library. Presumably the ruling applies to public
> libraries as well as academic. IMX public library staff in the UK have
> almost zero understanding of copyright law and are very conservative
> about anything related to copyright, so it's unlikely that this will
> affect their behaviour for some time. Libraries on the continent seem
> rather more in tune with the times.
>
One of the problems I see with an "in library only" restriction is the 
impact that has on people with disability. A few years ago my partner 
would have been unable to visit a library due to forms of disability, 
and certainly unable to make use of reading material there. So any such 
restriction could have been regarded as discriminatory against her.

This was an actual issue we came across as various medical research 
documents relevant to her conditions were only available to her within 
the local library. (They might have also been available on the internet 
at extortionate rates like 35 dollars for 24 hour access to one paper.) 
With the rarity of one condition being such that hardly any medics could 
even spell or pronounce its name, let alone know anything about it, 
access seemed very important. In the end it was simply too much of a 
burden to go through with raising the issues and trying to get them 
resolved.

-- 
Rod

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Libraries may digitize books without permission, EU top court rules Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-09-13 13:13 +0000
  Re: Libraries may digitize books without permission, EU top court rules Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-09-13 17:27 +0100
    Re: Libraries may digitize books without permission, EU top court   rules polygonum <rmoudndgers@vrod.co.uk> - 2014-09-13 20:18 +0100
      Re: Libraries may digitize books without permission, EU top court   rules Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-09-13 21:43 +0100
        Re: Libraries may digitize books without permission, EU top court     rules polygonum <rmoudndgers@vrod.co.uk> - 2014-09-13 21:57 +0100
          Re: Libraries may digitize books without permission, EU top court     rules Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-09-13 23:14 +0100

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