Libraries May Be Permitted To Digitise Books Without Copyright Owner’s Consent, EU High Court Rules

"European Union governments may allow libraries to digitise books in their collection without rights owners’ consent in order to make them available at electronic reading posts, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said on 11 September. If library users want to print works out on paper or store them on a USB stick, however, rights holders must be fairly compensated. The decision, Technische Universität Darmstadt v Eugen Ulmer ... involves the refusal by a university library to buy and use an e-book published by Eugen Ulmer. Instead, it made the book available by computer without the publisher’s consent. The German Federal Court of Justice asked for clarification of the scope of the exception under the EU copyright directive (2001/29/EC) which allows publicly accessible libraries to make works available to users via dedicated terminals. The ECJ held that even if a rights owner offers a library a licence agreement for use of the work on appropriate terms, the library may take advantage of the exception, since it otherwise could not fulfil its core mission of promoting research and private study. The directive doesn’t bar governments from giving libraries the right to digitise books, and, if necessary, from making the material available on dedicated computers, the court said. But the right of communication which public libraries may hold doesn’t allow people to print out the works on paper or store them on USB sticks, because those are acts of reproduction which aim to create a new copy of the digital copy, the court said ..."