Some countries have a 'public lending exception' allowing public libraries to lend books without first acquiring expensive licenses. This recent CJEU decision establishes applies to e-books too – lowering the hurdle for public libraries to acquire and lend e-books.
This decision is an important win for the information sharing society, and opens the door for new business models built around collaborative sharing services, such as annotated sharing, co-reads, library consolidation services, etc.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) in the VOB v. Stichting Leenrecht case (C-174/15) has recently provided some clarifications in…