The European Union’s Court of Justice issued a ruling on Thursday that declares EU rules about a public lending right to physical books through libraries apply to ebooks as well. The judgment imposes as a legal right what has become established business practice in the US for some time (albeit with a number of business model variations publisher by publisher): Libraries can lend legally published and purchased ebooks on a one-user-per-copy basis. EU rules require “fair compensation” to authors; what’s not clear to us from the ruling is whether those rules allow a separate practice from some publishers in the US […]
