While
the e-book world takes a minute to digest the court ruling finding
Apple conspired with book publishers to jack up the price of e-books
to consumers, it's worth noting that there is another e-book pricing
battle going on.
Consumers
are the ultimate victims here, also, but those most directly affected
are public libraries. Some book publishers don't lease e-books to
libraries at all, depriving library customers of versions of popular
best-sellers. Others set the lease rates exorbitantly high,
squeezing the already squeezed library budget.
The
American Library Association (ALA), and particularly former President
Maureen Sullivan, have raised the issue loudly and persistently, but
the publishers haven't been terribly responsive. Now, state and
local governments are just starting to become involved on behalf of
their libraries and the library patrons.
Connecticut
appears to be the first state to go on record as recognizing the
problem, while Montgomery County, Md., is poised to become the first
local government to weigh in.
In
Connecticut, Gov. Dan Malloy (D) on June 6 signed a bill requiring
the state attorney general and the state librarian to conduct a study
on the availability of e-books to public library customers. The study
will have a broad mandate, taking in such topics as surveying current
practices used by publishers and distributors (companies like
Overdrive or Baker & Taylor, which supply the software to make
the e-books available to libraries), to determine if there are any
problems with those practices and if so, what to do about them.
The
requirement of a study was the last compromise in the legislative
process, which started out with a bill by State Rep. Brian Sear (D)
"to require publishers of electronic books to offer such books
for sale to public and academic libraries at the same rates as
offered to the general public." That bill would mean the
publishers couldn't charge the public $12.99 for an e-book and charge
libraries $85 for the same e-book, which is the practice now.
Richard
Conroy, head of the Connecticut Library Association, (CLA) said he
got interested in a legislative campaign when Random House raised the
prices on e-books for the 26 libraries in the south central part of
the state. "The tripling of prices was the last straw,"
Conroy said in an interview, adding that CLA lobbyist Bob Shea said
there should be some way to pass legislation to "hold the
publishers feet to the fire." State Rep. Brian Sear (D), whose
wife worked for the Connecticut Library Consortium, agreed to
sponsor a bill.
The
first version of the bill required publishers to "offer e-books
for sale to public and academic libraries at the same rates as
offered to the general public." That bill got the attention of
publishers, who fought the bill in the statehouse and carried their
complaints to Connecticut legislators in Congress. Conroy said the
publishers calls the bill unconstitutional, said it abridged their
First Amendment rights and generally "raised a big stink."
The publisher team was formidable -- the biggest print publishers,
plus Apple and Amazon. Even with that lineup opposing it, the bill
gained momentum and cosponsors.
Conroy
said he plans to keep working on the issue, and that he hoped the
Connecticut bill could be a model for other states. That's a great
idea. States should study the pricing of e-books, and pass on to
Congress and Federal agencies their findings.
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