EU Commissioners Lobby for Copyright Reform to Aid Book Digitization

Not exactly known for its forward thinking or fast response and adapting to current needs, the European Commission is looking to make the necessary changes to copyright law in anticipation of the further digitization of the world's libraries. In light of the Google settlement with authors and publishers in the US, two EU Commissioners stressed the need for changes to make it easier for parties like Google or public-private partnerships to digitize books, especially those out-of-print or 'orphaned.'

“Europe is facing a very important cultural and economic challenge: Only some 1% of the books in Europe's national libraries have been digitised so far, leaving an enormous task ahead of us, but also opening up new cultural and market opportunities,” Viviane Reding, commissioner for Information Society and Media, and Charlie McCreevy, commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, said in a joint statement.

“Digitisation of books is a task of Herculean proportions which the public sector needs to guide, but where it also needs private-sector support. [...] It goes without saying that digitisation of copyrighted works must fully respect copyright rules and fairly reward authors, who could be the biggest winners from better access to a Europe-wide online audience.”

The EU will meet with interested parties such as rights holders, libraries, IT firms and consumer organizations this week to lay down the foundation for moving forward with the digitization of books. The main drive behind the move is the need to bring in line the different copyright laws across the continent, while also making the necessary provisions to allow and regulate deals like the settlement in the US, which is still facing a court hearing.

The commissioners stress the fact that the rights of the authors will come first, but also believe that they will benefit greatly from a similar undertaking in the EU, as the current agreement in the US would have Google give the original authors 63 percent of the revenue from selling the digital copies of the books online.