State Legislatures Reintroduce Library Ebook Fair Pricing Bills
State lawmakers introduce legislation aimed at ensuring public libraries can license ebooks on fair, reasonable terms.
State legislators in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Connecticut have introduced updated legislative bills aimed at addressing rising digital ebook licensing costs for public library systems.
The proposed statutes require commercial publishers offering digital ebooks to the public to also offer non-discriminatory, reasonable licensing terms to public libraries.
The Library Licensing Dilemma
- Short License Expirations: Many publisher library licenses expire after 24 months or 26 checkouts, requiring libraries to re-purchase titles repeatedly.
- High Multipliers: Libraries frequently pay 3x to 5x the consumer retail price per digital ebook license.
- Access Priorities: Library coalitions argue that fair terms are essential to maintain digital lending collections for underfunded communities.
Publishers Association representatives maintain that differential pricing reflects multi-user lending rights, setting up continued policy discussions in state capitols.
Sources
Daniel Osei
Senior reporter
Daniel writes on contracts, rights and the business of independent publishing.
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