Model Ebook Legislation

"To empower libraries to fulfill their mission of providing broad and equitable access to information for all Americans by ensuring that contractual agreements between libraries and publishers contain equitable licensing terms for the acquisition of electronic literary materials, and by ensuring that literary materials have at least the same utility in digital form as they have in analog form. This act is adopted pursuant to the power inherent in the State of [X] to protect public policy and promote the life, education, public convenience, general prosperity, and well-being of society, and the welfare of the state’s population and economy, that are dependent on libraries’ abilities to continue, as technology advances, their traditional practice of providing nondiscriminatory access to literary materials. Due to the unequal bargaining power of publishers and libraries and the pattern of abuse of market power by publishers, the State of [X] has a sufficiently compelling interest in adopting this legislation to protect the interests of [STATE’s] citizens in accessing information through the use of libraries...."