Libraries Can Digitise Books Without Consent, European Advocate General Says

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

Libraries can digitise individual books in their collections without the consent of rights holders, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, Niilo Jääskinen, has written in his application in a case (C-117/13) pending at the Luxembourg Court.

The digitisation and national legislation in the the European Union member states to allow for it would not contradict the EU copyright directive (2001/29/EC Art.5 3.n), the Advocate General wrote in the opinion in a case referred to the EU Court by the Federal Court of Justice of Germany.

German publisher Eugen Ulmer KG had filed the complaint against the Technical University of Darmstadt seeking to prevent the university’s library from providing works via electronic terminals. As long as the Library has no licensing contract with the publisher on e-versions of works, the library can make the content available via its e-reading points, the Advocate General wrote. And the publisher cannot oblige the library to sign an e-book contract.

The disputed exception provided for in German Copyright law (§52b) does not include a right for the readers to copy the content on a USB stick, though, Jääskinen said, while paper print-outs are possible. There is no difference between photocopies of pages of works physically present in the library to private paper copies from electronic works, in his view.

Considering that the Advocate General found that the library exception could not be used by libraries to digitise entire collections, libraries still have to make individual decisions. The Advocate General’s opinion is not binding on the Court, which will decide later this year.

The Court’s press release is here [pdf].

In German here.