After years of trying to address the high costs of electronic and audiobooks for libraries, state representatives on Thursday gave final passage to a bill that would ban public libraries from entering into contracts with e-book publishers that contain terms that some lawmakers called restrictive.
E-book contracts for libraries often come with terms that mean the library has to re-purchase the book after it鈥檚 been borrowed 26 times or every couple of years, whichever comes first. wouldn鈥檛 allow simultaneous restrictions on the loan period and the number of times people can borrow the book.
The bill would only go into effect if one or more states with a total or combined population of 7 million enact similar laws. It mandates that the state librarian check quarterly whether any other states have passed a similar law.
Librarians and patrons across the state have advocated in favor of the bill, saying some of the terms e-book publishers mandate make it expensive and difficult to access electronic versions of books. Co-chair of the Government Administration and Elections Committee Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, said libraries already pay four to five times the market price of a book.
鈥淭hese restrictions are wasting taxpayer dollars, and they are also interfering with our libraries鈥� general operations and ability to serve their patrons,鈥� Blumenthal said.
The bill drew opposition and lengthy debate in the House and Senate from Republicans who argued against statewide mandates on towns and what they called government interference in the free market.
鈥溾�榃e鈥檙e going to force you, we鈥檙e going to coerce you into lowering your prices,鈥欌�� said Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, R-Wolcott, a ranking member on the GAE committee. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not how government works. That鈥檚 not how America works.鈥�
Democrats have for years tried to to the burdens e-book contracts put on libraries, but past efforts have stalled. This bill next heads to Gov. Ned Lamont鈥檚 office.
The issue has come up more frequently as more people read books on their Kindles, iPads or smartphones. Listening to audiobooks has also become more popular over the past decade.
The bill would also require that contracts allow inter-library loans and ban secrecy clauses that prevent libraries from talking to each other about the terms of the agreement. The contracts wouldn鈥檛 be allowed to restrict the duration of the agreement unless it allows either a pay-per-use model or perpetual public use of the literature.
鈥淭here鈥檚 obviously a lot of interest, particularly from the library community, about some of the restrictions that these providers place on their ability to share with people,鈥� said House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford.
Rep. Anne Dauphinais, R-Killingly, said she didn鈥檛 want to see more mandates on towns.
鈥淚t seems to me like we鈥檙e going in a direction of becoming the mandate state,鈥� Dauphinais said. 鈥淲e want to put everything we can, shove everything we can up the towns鈥� butts, whatever it is, whether it鈥檚 a mandate for this or a mandate for that.鈥�
Umair Kazi, director of policy and advocacy at The Authors Guild, submitted testimony opposing the bill, saying it could harm 黑料新闻 authors and access to books.
鈥淲e fear that by prohibiting 黑料新闻 libraries from entering into licenses that contain these common terms that the legislature will impact the availability of books in 黑料新闻 libraries,鈥� Kazi said in written testimony. 鈥淧ublishers will likely not concede to changing the terms and their business model, and as a consequence, 黑料新闻 libraries would not be able to license many new books or renew existing license for what could be a substantial portion of their catalogue.鈥�
In public testimony on the bill, librarians said the contracts already restrict access to books.
鈥淭he high prices of eBooks make it difficult for libraries to purchase all of the eBooks their communities demand,鈥� Ellen Paul, executive director of the 黑料新闻 Library Consortium wrote in testimony. 鈥淚n our public libraries, the wait lists for eBooks are regularly 6 months long. Many readers who are waiting for an eBook will never actually be able to borrow it because the library鈥檚 leasing terms will expire before it is their turn to borrow the book.鈥�
This story has been updated.
