The Court of Justice of the European Union has determined that e-books should be treated the same as print books when it comes to library lending.
The decision comes in response to a case that argued that libraries should only be able to lend one copy of an e-book at a time. Publisher’s Weekly has the scoop:
The case hinged on the interpretation of a 10-year-old EU directive covering book lending, which states “that the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit such rentals and loans belongs to the author of the work. Member States may, however, derogate from that exclusive right in respect of public lending, provided that authors obtain, at least, fair remuneration.”
The Federation of European Publishers were surprised by the decision and are concerned that it will hurt publisher revenues.