IFLA Interview: “Spain’s Recent Copyright Reform: an Interview with the Chair of the Library Association’s (FESABID) Copyright Group”

From the International Federation of Library Associations: (IFLA)

 

The Spanish government recently implemented two European directives: the Marrakesh Directive, and the Collective Management Directive. The bill that transposed these two pieces of legislation came with unexpected proposals on the topic of public lending rights.

This case provides a good example of why keeping an eye on every legislative step is necessary, and of why the upcoming transposition of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market might open up new opportunities.

Ciro Llueca, director of the Library and Learning Resources at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and Chair of the Copyright group at the Spanish Library Association (FESABID) tells us about the recent changes.

The interview consists of six questions and answers. Here’s one exchange. 

Q. How does the current system of public lending rights work in Spain? Do you see any flaws?

Ciro Llueca: Generally speaking, it is not working well. Very few public administrations are implementing the public lending right scheme. We have an enormous problem around payment collection. Let’s be clear: in Spain, lots of people, including citizen and politicians, disagree with the principles of public lending rights. Sometimes the reason is related to the low budgets of public libraries. From my viewpoint, we should ensure that the failed implementation of cultural politics due to the underfunding of libraries does not end up harming another legitimate group of interest: the authors, especially local authors. 

Certainly, scandals around CMOs don’t help to solve the current situation. But several regional governments, such as the ones from Catalonia, Madrid and now Castilla-La Mancha, have shown that reporting and counting issues can be solved when all sides are willing to negotiate. In neither of these cases there is damage to libraries’ budgets, since remuneration comes from the public administration. And as I said, CMOs must be transparent with financial delivery.

Read the Complete Interview

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