Maryland Library E-book Bill Becomes Law

"A Maryland state bill that would ensure public libraries the right to license and lend e-books that are available to consumers in the state is now law.

In a May 28 letter to Maryland Senate president Bill Ferguson, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan informed legislators that the library e-book bill (HB518 in the House of Delegates and SB432 in the Senate) was among the many bills that would become law without the governor’s signature—normal procedure in the state, where the legislature typically passes hundreds of bills each session.

SB432 requires any publisher offering to license "an electronic literary product" to consumers in the state to also offer to license the content to public libraries "on reasonable terms" that would enable library users to have access. The bill is scheduled to take effect in January, 2022.

First introduced in January, SB432/HB518 passed the Maryland General Assembly unanimously on March 10. And despite opposition from the Association of American Publishers, which filed testimony in March claiming the law runs afoul of federal copyright law and is unconstitutional, the bills sailed through the reconciliation process with just two substantive changes: one that actually expanded the bill's reach to cover "electronic literary products" (rather than just e-books) and another that pushed the law's effective date to January, 2022, from July, 2021...."