Rare Book Monthly

Articles - May - 2024 Issue

States Seek to Limit What Publishers Can Charge Libraries for eBooks

Are libraries being overcharged for e-books and audiobooks? Many libraries seem to think so, and legislatures in many states are considering legislation to bring these costs under control. The publishers, not surprisingly, are opposed. 

 

Printed books have had something of a resurgence recently, many people preferring to read from physical books to reading from electronic devices. Nonetheless, e-books have experienced substantial growth in library usage in recent years. A trip to the library can be a major inconvenience compared to just dialing up online. Libraries have had to shift much of their budgets to electronic books to meet patron demand.

 

The problem is that publishers charge for e-books in a very different way, and this is not at all favorable to library budgets. With printed books, libraries buy them like everybody else. They pay the same price, and once they do, they own the books forever. If a book is very popular, the library may choose to buy multiple copies so that patrons don't have to face long waits, but they still get to buy at the market price and hold on to the books forever with no further charges.

 

With e-books, the libraries don't get to own them. They, in effect, lease them. The time period is likely to be a year or two, after which they can no longer lend the e-books without leasing them over again. Alternatively, or additionally, they may be limited in the number of times they can lend the book without paying over again. For example, they may not be able to loan it more than 26 times, after which, they have to lease it again. In some cases, they may have to lease the book for a maximum of one year or 26 loans, whichever comes first, after which they must lease the book again. As a book ages and demand slackens, it may no longer be worthwhile to keep leasing the book, whereas a physical book can be put off in the stacks somewhere so that it can be borrowed years later, even if the annual demand is only once or twice a year.

 

Then there is the issue of price. Publishers do not lease e-books for the same price they sell them to individual consumers. They charge substantially more, even though they don't get to keep them like an individual buyer. The result is that libraries must pay more, often far more, to provide their patrons with the books they want to read. Meanwhile, the reality is that many libraries are finding their funding decreasing. They need help.

 

A couple of years ago, the state of Maryland stepped in to assist. They passed a law that would have required publishers to sell e-books to libraries on “reasonable terms” if they sold them to others. The Association of American Publishers sued and won in court. The contention was that the state was interfering with copyright law by forcing publishers to sell their copyrighted works on terms set by the state. The court ruled the law unconstitutional as copyright law is the exclusive province of the federal government under the Constitution. New York's legislature passed a similar law, but the state's Governor vetoed it on Constitutional grounds.

 

One aspect of the publishers' terms the libraries have not challenged is the limitation that an eBook has to be electronically “returned” before it can be loaned again. If they have loaned the book to one patron, they cannot loan it to another until the first patron has returned it. This is in keeping with the practical reality of how physical books can be loaned.

 

Now, several states have taken up new legislation to protect their libraries from high costs. Among them are Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Illinois, Iowa, Tennessee, and Hawaii. This time, the states are taking a different tack. Rather than telling the publishers what they have to do, they are telling their libraries what they can't do. Generally, the rules apply to libraries that are subsidized by the government, as most libraries are, so it is not an infringement on the rights of private enterprise. These laws would forbid libraries from buying eBooks not in compliance with their terms, which may include limiting how much they can pay or how often they can lend them. The idea is to avoid unconstitutional interference with the publishers' copyrights by making no demands upon them, while setting limits as to what they can require if they wish to sell eBooks and audiobooks to most libraries in their state.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
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    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Francesca Woodman's Some Disordered Interior Geometries, 1981. Untrimmed publisher's proof sheets. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Johnson (C.). A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates, 1724. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ordonez de Cevallos (Pedro). Viage del Mundo, 1st edition, Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1614. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: North America. Merian (Matthaus), Virginia..., 1627 or later. £1,500-2,500
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: World. Waldseemuller (Martin), Tabula Nova Totius Orbis, Vienne: 1541. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Erasmus (Desiderius). The ... paraphrase of Erasmus... 2 volumes, 1st edition, 1549. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Bible [English]. [The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament, 1562]. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Smith (Lucy). Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 1st edition, 1853. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Derain (Andre). Pantagruel, signed limited edition, Albert Skira, 1943. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Austen (Jane). Pride and Prejudice, illustrated by Hugh Thomson, Large Paper edition, 1894. £1,500-2,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ellison (Ralph). Invisible Man, 1st edition, New York: Random House, 1952. £200-300
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Taschen Collector's Edition. Annie Leibovitz, limited edition, 2014. £1,000-1,500
  • Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 4: Various entertainers, Group of 30 items, signed or inscribed, various dates. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 27: John Adams, Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Rush introducing Archibald Redford, Paris, 1783. $35,000 to $50,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 36: Robert Gould Shaw, Autograph Letter Signed to his father from Camp Andrew, Boston, 1861. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 53: Martin Luther King Jr., Time magazine cover, signed and inscribed "Best Wishes," 1957. $5,000 to $7,500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 127: Paul Gauguin, Autograph Letter regarding payment for paintings, with woodcut letterhead, 1900. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 169: Suck: First European Sex Paper, complete group of eight issues, 1969-1974. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 173: Black Panthers, The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities, poster, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 187: Marc Attali & Jacques Delfau, Les Erotiques du Regard, first edition, Paris, 1968. $300 to $500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 213: Andy Warhol, Warhol's Index Book, first printing, New York, 1967. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 215: Cookie Mueller, Archive of 17 items, including 4 items inscribed and signed. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 249: Jamie Reid, The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print with collage, signed, circa 1980. $20,000 to $30,000.

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