Today, COMMUNIA is releasing Policy Paper #21 on the right to license and own digital materials (also available as a PDF file), in which we highlight a crucial challenge that users face in the digital environment: the increasing inability to own digital copies of copyrighted material.
Legacy physical formats, such as books, CDs and DVDs, are increasingly replaced by their digital-only counterparts. In fact, many entertainment media, such as movies and musical works, but also scientific articles and books released today are published in digital-only formats. This has opened the door for publishers to license works in digital formats instead of selling them. Whereas previously, a consumer would buy a physical copy of the work and own it, digital copies of works, such as e-books, are often not for sale but instead are exclusively available through licences.
Under these conditions, publishers and other gatekeepers can exercise much more control over their catalogues than ever before. A privilege that is ripe for abuse.
Knowledge institutions, such as universities, libraries and archives, are particularly weak in this environment, having to rely on licences to access digital formats, making it considerably more difficult for these institutions to access and retain new works. Knowledge institutions are also at the mercy of licensors who can impose subscription bundles, implement licensing restrictions, force institutions to repurchase the same materials on a regular basis, or even refuse to license altogether.
In this policy paper we examine the current situation of the knowledge market in Europe and the impact it has on the exercise of users rights before proposing the introduction of access rights for individual beneficiaries of copyright exceptions, in general, and a balanced obligation to license or sell to knowledge institutions. As knowledge institutions act as distributors for knowledge to the public, empowering them would also extend these benefits to society as a whole.
This proposal is aligned with our proposal on e-lending (Policy Paper #19) and should thus be implemented as part of a broader legislative intervention, a Digital Knowledge Act.