Happy World Book Day!
Are you aware that today is World Book and Copyright Day in the UK?
This year, book lovers are celebrating their favourite stories once again as World Book Day marks its 20th anniversary. The annual celebration of authors, illustrators and reading is marked in more than 100 countries around the world. The event celebrates books and offers a chance for children to dress up as their favourite characters and play games linked to their favourite stories.
On World Book Day, every child in full-time education in the UK is given a voucher to be spent on books. The day was first celebrated in 1995 in the UK. In other countries, World Book Day is generally observed on 23 April – William Shakespeare’s birthday.
Copyright Day
The annual charity event is the local manifestation of World Book and Copyright Day (also known as International Day of the Book or World Book Days), organised by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright.
Copyright can protect many different forms of expression, including literary works such as books but can also protect dramatic, musical and artistic works, layouts of typographical arrangements, recordings and broadcasts. Copyright is an intellectual property right, which arises automatically on creation of one of these forms of original works, and it is the expression of the work, rather than the idea itself that is afforded protection.
Use of a copyright material is only allowed with the permission of the copyright holder. However, the digital age has led to questions as to whether this is becoming out of date. In a world where we expect access to music, film and books for free, issues have arisen as to how to protect and enforce copyright. The Internet age and the availability of pirated copies of various forms of media have made it more and more difficult for copyright holders to seek to assert their rights.
Reading into the future
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has recently made public his support for highlighting “the clear and present danger” to Britain’s public library service. This launched a public debate about the role of public libraries in Britain today and in the future. The adverse effects that the private market of digital book sales suffers by having a very active library service to compete with have been demonstrated. Now it is up to the publishers and resellers to weigh the pros and cons and to create a healthy coexistence of libraries and resellers. There is no easy solution as to what the role of public libraries should be. However, one thing is clear: we need to be able to have a well-functioning private market in order to pay for the books produced by authors and publishers.
In March 2013, a panel of experts headed by William Sieghart performed a review of e-lending in public libraries in England and found that:
“The UK publishing industry is undergoing a digital revolution and the conclusion of this process is still a long way off. The full impact of this revolution will transform the structure of publishing, bookselling and book borrowing, whether we like it or not.”
Sieghart noted that there was a rapidly growing wish from the public to borrow books that could be read on an Amazon Kindle, or similar electronic device. In order to attempt to stop the pirating of books in a similar manner to music, it is necessary to act now and to make the borrowing and lending of e-books increasingly available and therefore popular.
However, early experiments of digital lending led to mistrust when rules had not been effectively established and publishers feared for the security of their digital assets. Concerns in relation to libraries’ ability to delete books at the end of a borrowing period and in relation to the possibility of file sharing were rife. Publishers, understandably, do not want e-lending to be such a success that book sales fall.
Accordingly, the report attempted to establish basic rules on e-lending between libraries and publishers. Sieghart noted in particular that:
“Many of these rules will have to evolve as the market and the technology develop.”
The delicate balancing game between promoting new uses of copyright works and ensuring that publishers and authors (amongst others) continue to make a profit will continue for some time. Rights holders should continue to monitor and assess how best to protect and enforce copyright in their works.
Whatever genre or medium your book takes, enjoy reading and happy World Book Day!
Whether you are an author, illustrator, publisher or require further information and advice about copyright, contact Tidman Legal, intellectual property specialists based in Edinburgh.
