Alan Inouye: "Bring back equitable access for the Digital Age: Congress must act"

In The Hill, Alan Inouye, Senior Director, Public Policy & Government Relations for ALA’s Washington Office, is advocating legislative change to ensure fair access to e-books for library readers:

“There is failure,” says Mr. Inouye, “in digital markets for libraries, schools, universities, and other public-service organizations, and libraries are officially fed up with it. We’ve tolerated abusive pricing and restrictive licensing terms long enough. It’s time for Congress to act.”

He contrasts access via copyright to print materials with the licensing mdoles that give access to digital content: “Contracts can specify that works cannot be used in a classroom setting. Contracts can prohibit modification of materials to accommodate people with disabilities. Contracts can prevent the preservation of materials by libraries, as the very stewards of the cultural heritage of a nation or a community. And contracts often mandate much higher prices - as much as five times the consumer price. In the case of Amazon, no contract is offered, so there is no possibility of access. Public-service organizations face all of these problems and more.”

Efforts are beginning:

“The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, under the leadership of Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is undertaking an investigation of the competition in digital markets. In response to a request for comment, the American Library Association submitted detailed information highlighting the impact of market-distorting practices in the digital content industry. On behalf of libraries in every congressional district, the ALA urges the Subcommittee to intensify its activities and calls upon the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate as well.”

Efforts are also progressing at the state level.

We in libraries are fighting powerful monied interests. While RF is no fan of Macmillan’s e-book embargo not of “exploding” timebound licenses, Amazon’s outright refusal to allow access to their “exclusive” content is a far bigger threat to access and preservation , while other streaming survices such as NetFlix compount the problem. If legal barriers to denying access to content can be enacted, libraries and readers might gain equitable access. Those who are homebound or have issues with reading traditional print for a variety of reasons will benefit. And of course, nobody should have to have a credit card or pay by cell phone in order to ensure being an informed citizen. The fight will be difficult. But don’t our readers deserve a supreme effort from us?