Piero Attanasio Associazione Italiana Editori Access to books – European publishers’ view Krakow, 5 April 2011 Conference: Use of Books and Press vs. Rights of Authors and Publishers Situation in Poland with the European Background

Let me change vs. into and  As in the past: in digital era adequate level of copyright protection is a prerequisite to stimulate investments to provide access  Copyright is a tool to provide access, not an obstacle!  The issue is: to have effective models and tools to minimise transaction costs in copyright management  In digitisation programmes this is evident:  The cost for searching rightholders and managing rights may be too high in comparison to the value of the individual transactions Cf. Hal R. Varian, 2006, Copyright term extension and orphan works, Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol. 15, 6, pp  However, this is true only for out of commerce work  In mainstream digital publishing, this is not an issue  And the primary way to access is based on copyright protection, which facilitates demand and supply meeting in market place  In a competitive arena, prices will be low, and access multiplied

Out of commerce works and collective management of rights  High transaction costs have a traditional answer in collective management of rights  In the book sector: limited to “secondary exploitation” of rights  Nothing new?  The way for defining the scope of collective management is new  Traditionally: the scope is defined in respect to particular uses (e.g. photocopying part of a book for teaching purposes) and apply to every work  In digitisation programmes: the scope is defined in respect to particular works (out of commerce) while uses are expected to be very broad (e.g.: scanning and making available in the Internet worldwide)

The European stakeholders dialogue on out of commerce works  Authors, publishers, libraries, CMOs and other stakeholders joined the invitation by the European Commission to dialogue on the use of out of commerce  Book publishers agreed to consider collective management appropriate to approach the transaction cost issue  Under certain conditions: (N.B. this is my view, not the conclusion of the debate)  Limited to out of commerce, correctly determined at work level and on title by title basis  After voluntary agreement between all the parties involved, where the exact scope of the programme is defined Collective representation must be genuine  Including individual notification every time it is reasonable  Ensuring that rightholders can opt out at any time from the agreement and the resulting licensing scheme  With a remuneration scheme provided  The dialogue is still in progress: optimism in a positive conclusion

Collective agreements and market distortions  A key point: agreements should not create market distortion  Recently emphasised also by the judgement on the Google Settlement  The issue derives from two factors:  Economies of scale in the cost structure of digitisation  Network effects and related “economies of scale from the demand side”  Any agreement should consider this aspect  Solution 1: limiting the agreement only to non commercial uses by the public sector (e.g. a library programme funded by public money, with no return)  Solution 2: counterbalancing the economies of scale Never providing broad exclusivity Non discriminating licensing policy Limiting the user capacity to tie services in the digital book trade to other services (hardware sales, search engine, etc.)

The French stakeholders agreement (an outsider interpretation)  Announced beginning of February 2011  Conceived to revitalise French out of commerce works  One single company to scan entire collections of out of commerce works  So to exploit economies of scale on the supply side  However the company does not acquire rights on the works  One search service in Gallica, the National Library (BNF) digital library  So to exploit economies of scale on the demand side  Rights managed by a CMO  First option offered to the original publisher  Then to other companies on non exclusive basis

Conclusion  We are living interesting times:  Innovation in technologies requires innovation in business models and in policies  “Technologies change, economic principles do not” Cf. Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian. Information Rules: A Strategic Guide for the Network Economy. Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA,  Pay attention to competitive impact of collective agreements to mainstream e-book trade  Innovative right management requires innovative “right information management”

Thank you for the attention  Further information  Piero Attanasio – Associazione Italiana Editori