EU to clear legal obstacles to online books

Fragmented copyright laws to be overhauled

The European Commission is set to overhaul fragmented copyright laws across the region as it prepares for the "Herculean" task of making millions of books available over the internet.

Viviane Reding, the commissioner for information society and media, and Charlie McCreevy, commissioner for the internal market and services, are holding a week of briefings on "book digitisation" in the wake of Google's copyright settlement in the US over its Google Book Search business.

There is currently no equivalent copyright framework in the European Union, where only 1 per cent of the books in national libraries has been put online. "If we are too slow to go digital, Europe's culture could suffer in the future," the commissioners said.

Europe has a hugely fragmented copyright legislation, particularly over out-of-print works or the so-called "orphan" works where the rights holders are no longer contactable.

They said: "We need to take a hard look at the copyright system we have today in Europe. Is the present framework still fit for the digital age?"

Ms Redding and Mr McCreevy especially questioned the laws relating to orphan and out-of-print works, which represent 90 per cent of European libraries' collections.

The commissioners are attempting to formulate a response and will report to the European Parliament and the Council with their findings. They said the deliberations could help "present proposals for the modernisation of Europe's still far too fragmented copyright system. If the EU succeeds, we could lay the foundation for a new generation of cultural growth in Europe."

The commissioners called for support from private companies: "Digitisation of books is a task of Herculean proportions which the public sector needs to guide, but where it also needs private-sector support."

Google has agreed with US authors and publishers that writers could receive 63 per cent of the online revenue generated by the Books division, following a class action lawsuit.