Information technology and copyright: Copyright collective for books digitization in France

For several months in France there is being actively discussed the creation of a viable alternative to the Google Books project – the Gallica digital library. The main stumbling block is the inclusion in the public database the 20th century books no more available commercially, which have not yet become public domain and are still under copyright.

The parties, French authors and publishers, the French Ministry of Culture, the French National Library and the Committee of Governmental Investment, finally reached the consent on February 1, 2012 when they signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

It was agreed that the editions which are no longer on sale, will still be digitized, but subject to mandatory copyright collective through organizations authorized to reproduction (copying). It is envisaged that the copyright holders of "unavailable books", after their digitization, would be paid royalties through the system of copyright collective and provided the opportunity to ban the sale of electronic versions at the request of the authors.

As a result, 22 February 2012 the French Parliament adopted the Law "On Compulsory copyright collective of the 20th century works out of sale for their further digitizing and making available to public."

However, even after the adoption of the law, disputes between supporters and opponents of digitization continue both in France and abroad.

In France, as in all EU countries, literary and musical works pass to the public domain only 70 years after the death of their authors.

However, the new law has been adopted in France, and in full compliance to it, 500, 000 to 700, 000 editions, published in the 20th century but inaccessible to today's readers since they are no longer distributed commercially, are to be digitized. All the unavailable books will be included in the directory of a public database of the French National Library, which is entrusted with its creation and the digitization of books.

Along with the criticism, many interested parties approve of the new French law on digitization of unavailable books, calling it a timely step in the fight against piracy in the web.

A vast array of texts of books is introduced into the legal turnover. Hundreds of thousands of titles fall into the central database of French libraries and, therefore, technically, become available in all libraries. This means the right of citizens for information is respected, while at the same time the copyright is observed, though not completely.