Report: UK Government Extends Library Lending Scheme to eBooks

From World Intellectual Property Review:

The UK government has extended a fund that compensates authors for loaning their works for free to public libraries.
The changes to the Public Lending Right (PLR) scheme will be introduced to the Digital Economy Bill, which has yet to be approved, allowing authors of e-books and e-audiobooks to be eligible for payment in the same way as owners of physical books.

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Full Text of Public Lending Right Statement:

Following an amendment to the second reading of the Digital Economy Bill in the House of Lords on February 22, the Bill now includes provision for the inclusion of remote elending with the application of PLR.
Commenting on the legislative change, Roly Keating, Chief Executive of the British Library said:
“With the rapid rise in popularity of ebooks and e-audiobooks in recent years, it’s fantastic news that authors’ UK PLR payments will now reflect remote ebook loans of their books from public libraries as well as the borrowing of hard copies. Over 22,000 writers, illustrators, photographers, translators, narrators and editors who have contributed to books lent out by public libraries in the UK receive PLR payments each year, so we look forward to working with even more new authors who are now eligible.”
The legislation will not come into effect until late spring 2017 at which point PLR will begin to work with DCMS on its implementation.
We will keep authors informed of any updates regarding this. In the meantime, authors can register ebooks for UK PLR but loans will not generate any PLR earnings yet.

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