Joint Statement by the European Booksellers Federation, the European Publishers Council, the European Writers Council, the Federation of European Publishers & the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers

Working Group 1 (cross-border and interoperability), Print Subgroup

Book sector’s roadmap to enhance cross border access, interoperability and, discoverability of ebooks
in the Single Market

Representatives of the book sector, comprising authors, publishers and booksellers participating in WG1 of Licences for Europe (hereafter the “book  sector”), endorse the principle that European consumers should have the ability to acquire e-books across territorial borders, platforms and devices, in a way that ensures protection of intellectual property rights at all times.

Authors, publishers and booksellers are committed to promoting cross-border availability of e-books to the benefit of European consumers. In many cases, and depending on contractual and market parameters, digital versions of books (or e-books) are already commercially available across borders through different types of booksellers.

In the framework of the switch to the collection of VAT in the country of consumption of electronic services (including e-books) on 1st January 2015, the trade will be working at how stakeholders could increase the number of books commercially available to citizens all over Europe.

Interoperability

It is in the mutual interests of the book sector and readers to be able to offer the best reading experience in the digital world as much as in the physical one, in all linguistic markets in the EU. One way to achieve this is through full interoperability within the e-book market.

In order for consumers to be able to access their e-books through the plurality of devices currently available, the interoperability of file formats should be given the highest priority, prior to any further development. However, it is not sufficient in itself: the ecosystems in which e-books are acquired and accessed (including devices, reading software, online purchase platforms, digital rights management) must be interoperable as well.

This is why the book sector supports initiatives such as the development of ePub, an open standard format for e-books with a wide range of interoperability and accessibility features, and also looks favourably
at wider projects aimed at opening up the market through interoperable standards and creating a level playing field for all..

The general use of interoperable formats would not in itself lead to full interoperability of e-book for customers, because of the extra fences to ecosystems that proprietary DRM measures introduce. The book sector is therefore keen to keep working at broader balanced solutions in order to meet the challenge of protecting intellectual property while increasingly tending towards the general availability of customer-friendly solutions and generalised alternative solutions to closed eco-systems.

The representatives of the book value chain would also like to recall that the European Commission, with a view to creating a single market for content in the framework of the Digital Agenda for Europe, has vowed
to change a situation in which “often consumers cannot transfer digital content (e.g. an e-book) to a different
device“. A view supported by the European Council of 24th October 2013 “There is also a need to address the bottlenecks in accessing one’s “digital life” from different platforms which persist due to a lack of interoperability or lack of portability of content and data. This hampers the use of digital services and competition”.

We would therefore like to suggest enhancing consumer education about the meaning of closed ecosystems, supporting any initiatives aimed at increasing interoperability, promoting interoperable choices in public procurement (such as e-book and device acquisitions by schools, libraries, public administration) and considering any other steps in this direction, also drawing inspiration, for example, from the Memorandum of Understanding negotiated and signed by 14 companies, representing 90% of mobile phone producers, who agreed to harmonise their standards.

Presentation were made of some of the initiatives of the sector such as

• ePub3 by Cristina Musinelli, Board member of the International Digital Publishing Forum
• MO3T by Pierre Geslot, Orange

Other initiatives were mentioned such as TOLINO in Germany in cooperation with Deutsche Telekom and the Readium Foundation (http://readium.org/)

Discoverability

It is essential that works can be easily found online. Currently, a citizen wanting to acquire an e-book online will either go directly to the website of one retailer or perform a search on the internet, which will indicate where the e-book is available but not whether s/he will be able to access or download or obtain delivery of a physical carrier embodying that e-book if s/he is not living in the country where the retailer is situated.

This is not an issue relating to the rights of copyright in an e-book – this is more about the discoverability of
e-books which are commercially available, especially across borders. Where can I buy the right to access or download an e-book in or outside my country of residence? In which format will it be available? But also, can I get informed advice (from booksellers, from book clubs, etc.)? In the end, more e-books could come to the fore. Since several retailers will offer the e-book, the reader may want to be able to make a distinction between local brick-and-mortar retailers and internet-only retailers, between different formats (ePub, pdf and also proprietary formats such as the one used in Kindle), possibly between different business models (temporary access, DRM, cloud, etc.), between languages, as well as between accessible (for print-disabled persons) versions or not.

The European Commission has voiced its support for a discoverability project. Such a project would have to be financed in the long run by the public sector as in the book sector, for a great majority of European citizens, languages are often a barrier to the marketing of publications and as a result, markets outside of homogeneous linguistic zones, except for widely spoken languages, are very marginal.

The full statement can be found in attachment. 

The European and International Booksellers Federation, EIBF, represents Booksellers Associations in the European Union and in the world. Through its Members it represents more than 25.000 bookselling businesses worldwide. Booksellers Associations in membership with EIBF have in membership all kind
of book retailers, terrestrial bookshops, online retailers, selling paper and electronic books.

We read that at its February 2013 meeting, the ICANN Board of Directors recognized the problems presented by applications that would restrict use of generic industry terms to a single company. Granting monopoly control of a TLD to a single industry member can create an unfair competitive advantage. Such an arrangement would work against both consumers and the industry associated with the generic term.
EIBF is of the strong opinion that indeed “closed generic” gTLD applications have to be invalidated when submitted by commercial entities operating in a sector of activity related to the closed generic gTLD .

In the case of a closed generic TLD like .books, the exclusivity granted to the winning applicant would de facto strengthen the position of the biggest bidder to have sole use of the gTLD in the book industry, would be anti-competitive and extremely detrimental to the book industry as a whole.
We are therefore asking ICANN not to offer for sale a generic gTLD for .book and other similar words in general usage.

http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-closed-generic-05feb13/msg00045.html.

The European Platform on the potential of Cultural and Creative Industries advocates for a strong budget for Creative Europe

Ahead of the 7-8 February Special Summit on the EU’s Multi-Annual Financial Framework, the European Platform on the potential of Cultural and Creative Industries (‘The Platform’) – a group of more than 40 organisations representing a wide range of cultural and creative sectors – calls on EU Member States to adopt a strong budget for ‘Creative Europe’, the 2014-2020 programme for the cultural and creative sectors.

The full contribution can be found in attachment. 

The European book sector is the first cultural industry in Europe with an estimated turnover of 40 billion euros(i). The European book sector employs several hundreds of thousands of highly skilled European citizens. Most of multinational book publishing companies are Europe-based.

Together, booksellers and publishers bring to the public world-class literary, educational, academic content, in printed, audio and electronic formats. They are committed to ensuring their works are available to the widest possible audience. This includes supporting initiatives to increase literacy, and making works accessible to those who may be unable to read books in their traditional format.

1. Copyright is an enabler to the free circulation of e-books across the European Union and the bedrock of creativity and of the book industry, therefore the very foundation of the knowledge society (ii). Authors grant an exclusive licence to their publishers. Publishers generally acquire at least a pan-European licence for a specific linguistic version and generally offer pan-European access to their ebooks. Publishers then negotiate sales or licences’ contracts with wholesalers/booksellers.
2. Availability. Making ebooks available to consumers requires important investments and often local sensitivity from both the publishing and bookselling end of the book chain. Book trade stakeholders thrive to be present on the various ebook markets of the European Union despite cross-border market differences. It is important to remember that some authors may choose not to have their books made available in electronic format, as is their property right. In such circumstances, publishers and booksellers are not legally permitted to make these works available as they do not have the necessary rights to do so.
3. Interoperability. A key element for the growth of the e-book market is the interoperability between reading software and devices and the possibility for consumers to read any ebook bought on any platform on any device. Consumers would hugely benefit from this. Competition should happen at all level (the book itself, the online retailer and the reading device) to preserve the plurality and freedom to publish that are so vital to our cultural and social developments.
4. Competition. The continuation of the rich and diversified European literature reflecting the richness of the multilingual European cultural identity is better served with a strong, diverse and healthy network of book and ebooks retailers, able to provide European consumers with books in the format of their choice. One should therefore seek to avoid monopolies, or dominant positions especially in digital distribution.
5. Value Added Tax. In 25 out of 27 Member States, the content of a printed book is taxed at zero or reduced rates. The standard tax rates on ebooks are detrimental to growth and the different rates create strong disparities between multinational platforms and local ones.(iii)
6. Piracy. With the exponentially growing ebook market, publishers are developing content to match consumer demand; the legal offering is increasingly diverse and customers are being offered innovative ways to read books. Yet, ebooks illegally uploaded on websites do not only compete unfairly with these new offers, but also damage the perceived value of books as a cultural good. Simple procedures to remove illegal ebooks from these websites and to close them if they don’t act, are required.

i Based on the revenues of publishers. FEP statistics
ii The success of the book sector is based upon copyright encouraging works to be created, developed and exploited, and through which revenue is generated and reinvested back into creative and academic output. Copyright also allows works to be licensed and sold across national borders driving export revenues and promoting European culture across the continent and overseas.
iii While in the US there is a moratorium on taxes on e-sales.

EBF believes that any reform of the VAT system should take into account the following principles:

• The specific identity of the book, both commercial and cultural item, independently of its format
• The fact that VAT should be neutral in the cost structure of any business and be charged according to EU and national rules
• The necessity to implement tax policies supporting the ambitious objectives of the Digital Agenda and the EU 2020 strategy.

Read more in attachment.

Although booksellers are not usually the rights holders, they support the concept of the enforcement of copyright as passionately as authors and publishers. Furthermore, in reason of the shift to digitization and new digital business models, booksellers will de facto guarantee the proper enforcement of copyright when they sell e-books and digital files to their customers, either in terrestrial shops or online.

Full text in attachment.

Although booksellers are not usually the rights holders, they support the concept of copyright as passionately as authors and publishers.

Books are being converted into digital formats and copyright is coming under greater pressure. Files of copyrighted material can easily be shared illegally. This will mean lost revenue not only for authors and publishers, but for booksellers as well.

EBF supports the following Principles on Copyright in order to provide a fair trading infrastructure for rights holders and everyone in the value chain.

The full statement can be found in attachment.