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Libraries can now lend e-books

02/12/16

The Court of Justice has handed down its judgment in Case C-174/15, Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken v Stichting Leenrecht. The case arose out of a dispute between the public libraries and a copyright collecting society in Holland which maintained that additional licence fees were due for lending e-books.

The case gave rise to an interesting point of law concerning the approach to interpreting old legislation where technology has subsequently moved on. The 2006 Rental and Lending Right Directive makes reference to a ‘loan’ of a book but was passed at a time before e-books existed.

AG Szpunar in his opinion in the case emphasised that it is important to give legal acts an interpretation which takes into account developments in technology and ‘not to fix such acts in the past by adopting too rigid an interpretation’. The Court of Justice has followed his approach by interpreting the 2006 legislation in a way which permits ‘lending’ of e-books within the existing permissions that exist for lending of traditional paper books.

A link to the judgment is here.

Nicholas Saunders is standing counsel to the UK Government on IP and was instructed by the Cabinet Office. Margaret Gray also acted as an adviser to the UK Government on issues arising out of the proceedings, instructed by Department for Culture, Media and Sport.