PLR in Taiwan: the latest development Prof. Jeong-Yeou Chiu Director, Tamkang University Press Taiwan

Taiwan: The Background 1/3 New titles are experiencing shorter shelf lives and declining sales. Whereas books must sell between 5,000 and 20,000 copies to be profitable, most new titles struggle to sell out their typical first printing of 2,000 to 3,000 copies. About 28 percent of new titles published annually are translations. The United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, mainland China and South Korea are the main sources for book licensing, The inward flow of publication licenses for translated works is greater than the outward flow.

Taiwan: The Background 2/3 Sales of NT$76 billion (US$2.53 billion) in 2012 for a population of 23 million work out to about US$100 per person per year, the price of which average around US$10 a copy. The per capita figure compares favorably with the UK, Taiwan with about 45,000 titles printed per year, is second only to the U.K. worldwide in number of books published per head. Taiwan has over 14,000 registered publishers, of whom about 2,000 are active, the vast majority of them small and individual. The diversity of small publishers may be a hidden strength of the local industry. Source: Steve Hands, “Taiwan’s book industry looks ahead,”Taiwan Today, 08/25/2013

Taiwan: The Background 3/3 The digital publishing industry enjoyed an annual average growth rate of 15 percent over the past five years, reaching an estimated value of NT$600 billion (US$20.36 billion) in 2011. In 2010, Taiwan government has allocated funding of NT$30 million (US$948,107) to 10 businesses, and NT$23.96 million (US$813,196) to eight businesses in 2011 to subsidize their sharing of digital know-how with small and medium-sized publishers. This led to the digitization of 4,335 books by 270 publishers during the two-year period. Publishers have become increasingly optimistic about the future of the e-book market, as private-sector interest in developing digital content has increased, e-book platforms have been launched and e-reading devices are available at affordable prices. Source: Office of Information Services, Executive Yuan, “Mass media”, available at http://www.ey.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=8B37A56E6E2B7316      

Taiwan PLR is not yet a policy Seminars held by the industry: they left without the determination from the government Several controversies resulted from 2 aspects: 1) How can publishers / authors persuade the government to enforce PLR in a period of “austerity”, and 2) Who is responsible for creating the budget. Seminars concluded that Taiwan needs a creative minimal scope for PLR scheme with really beautiful and capable design which will make PLR feasible. New Actions taken by ebooks lending library: Kaohsiung Public Library A Localized action takes the place of National policy Budget responsibility the budget responsible

---- An implicit PLR goal of the Project --- Localized action replaces National policy The Launch of “Taiwan Cloud Books” Project Taiwan Cloud Books, a private owned project, acts as a collecting and allotting agency for this quasi-PLR scheme. In September 2013, Taiwan Cloud Books Project, run by Taiwan Yuan-Liou Publishing Co. has launched the 4,000 ebooks website on Kaohsiung Public Library, which allows access for mobile reading. ---- An implicit PLR goal of the Project --- 視需要多列出 幾點。

“Taiwan Cloud Books” Project ---- An implicit PLR goal of the Project --- The new cloud platform will allow Taiwan to enrich e- book content, and help build the digital book industry. This design is a major breakthrough for libraries, injecting new model into PLR policy and offering new methods of payments. Author’s Remuneration financed by Kaohsiung Cultural Foundation (KCF) 使用項目符號並逐字討論 所有細節。

Business Model of PLR by Taiwan Cloud Books and the Foundation Remuneration alloted by the Taiwan Cloud Books (TCB) scheme is practicable, because … 1)Specific 一 Ebooks list are offered by multi-publishers. 2)A user lending (loan based) model instead of license fee or royalty-free payment. KFC gives NT$9 (€ 0.23; ￡0.19) per loan remuneration to publishers (via TCB) ; and NT$3 operation fee for TCB. 3)Each ebook library card contains10 points, but renewable for 5 times in a year. One point per loan with 14 days loan period. To make lump sum payment for the Ebooks.

Business Model of PLR by Taiwan Cloud Books and the Foundation TCB contains 1,700 titles online by August, 2013; New titles expected to increase 10,000 titles per year. Ebooks in the cloud can give Taiwan the opportunity to develop its culture and soft-power in both the global and Chinese-speaking communities. Most publishers hoped that it will become a nationwide movement and help promoting national PLR policy, even some of the Taiwan libraries express reservations. Kaohsiung the first, and which city is the next?

Problems & Uncertainties Remuneration goes to publishers, hence author remuneration depends on licensing agreement with publisher. Market scale of the Project maintenance fee is too small to be well developed, thus it might lead licensing agency (namely the TBC) in a financial crisis. Foundation-based PLR pilot platform makes no guarantee of a long term implementation. (Without PLR legislation)Alternation of political parties could easily change the policy of city government. Library’s conservative views: Some of the libraries always care about “permanent collections” of the ebooks, while the experimental project ceases to operate with library. The feeling of “ownership”.

Conclusions Stocks, titles, loan estimates and grants make the payment of Public Lending Right, plus with the hybrid system of estimates mentioned. PLR is growing but more complicated than ever. Nevertheless, some of the reasons for convincing people of realizing PLR are controversial. PLR certainly will become harmonious and be a well designed policy. What are the meaningful thinking to us? The positive attitudes of library toward PLR system and the emphasis on the relationship between publishing market, library and the government are of importance.

Conclusions Taiwan's PLR system and remuneration, if to be employed, should simply begin with and be recognized as a culture policy to evade the difficulties of immediately revising the copyright law or other national policies. And probably leave it small and local. Can we enjoy the Beauty of Small?