A new law in France

[vice-versa]

"on the digitization of the unavailable twentieth century books"

by AFP :

Le Parlement a définitivement adopté, par un vote unanime de l'Assemblée nationale dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi, une loi "sur la numérisation des livres indisponibles du XXe siècle" permettant d'acheter sur internet des ouvrages introuvables hors des bibliothèques.
Cette loi vise à rendre accessible sous forme numérique l'ensemble de la production littéraire du siècle dernier, dès lors que les oeuvres ne sont plus exploitées commercialement, mais ne sont pas pour autant tombées dans le domaine public, 70 ans après la mort de l'auteur.
Elle prévoit que la Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) recense dans une banque de données publique l'ensemble de ces oeuvres dont l'exploitation serait gérée par une Société de perception et de répartition des droits (SRPD) qui assurerait, de façon paritaire, une rémunération aux éditeurs et aux auteurs.
Certains ouvrages de Paul Morand, Jean Rostand ou Philippe Soupault, ceux de nombreux poètes, critiques ou penseurs du XXe siècle ne sont plus accessibles et pourraient retrouver ainsi une seconde jeunesse.
"A travers ce texte ambitieux, nous démontrons que la diffusion des oeuvres sur internet peut se faire sans exception au droit d'auteur et sans pratique de contrefaçon", s'est félicité le ministre de la Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand.
Si la nouvelle loi, proposée à l'origine par le sénateur UMP Jacques Legendre et le député UMP Hervé Gaymard, a fait l'objet d'un consensus au Parlement, tant au Sénat qu'à l'Assemblée, des auteurs craignent d'être floués.
Selon la proposition, les auteurs ou ayants droit devront s'opposer à l'inscription de leur oeuvre sur la base de données, qui serait sans cela automatique. Un automatisme contre lequel s'insurge un collectif dans une pétition à l'adresse des parlementaires, intitulée "Le droit d'auteur doit rester inaliénable".
"L'auteur seul - ou à défaut ses ayants droit - peut décider d'une nouvelle diffusion de son oeuvre. Tout éditeur - numérique ou papier - qui souhaiterait l'exploiter se doit en premier chef de lui proposer un contrat", souligne la pétition.

a translation with Google help (I corrected some errors, but, still, errors can remain...)

Parliament finally adopted by a unanimous vote of the National Assembly on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, a law "on the digitization of the unavailable twentieth century books " to allow online purchasing books that are not available out of libraries.
This law aims to make available in digital form throughout the literary production of the last century, when the works are no longer used commercially, but are not so far fallen into the public domain 70 years after the death of author.
It provides that the National Library of France (BNF) lists in a public database all of these works whose exploitation would be managed by a Society of collection and distribution rights (MPD) which would ensure, with equal representation, compensation to publishers and authors.
Some works of Paul Morand, Jean Rostand and Philippe Soupault, those poets, critics and thinkers of the twentieth century are no longer accessible and could well find a second life.
"Through this ambitious text, we show that the distribution on the Internet can be no exceptions to copyright infringement and without practice", welcomed the Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand.
If the new law, originally proposed by UMP Senator Jacques Legendre and UMP deputy Herve Gaymard, has been a consensus in Parliament, both the Senate and Assembly, the authors fear to be cheated.
Under the proposal, the authors or assigns shall prevent the registration of their work on the database, which would otherwise be automatic. Automatism which rebelled against a group in a petition at parliamentarians, entitled "Copyright should remain inalienable".
"The author alone - or his successors - may decide on a new distribution of his work. Any editor - digital or paper - that would operate properly in the first place to offer him a contract," said the petition.

[Giggleton]

If we need laws to tell us what we can and cannot read then I believe we are in serious trouble as a culture.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

If we need laws to tell us what we can and cannot read then I believe we are in serious trouble as a culture.

Come on, if I read it right, no-one's telling you what to read, just making more available. Although this would not impact on other country's copyright laws, I presume, only France.
Again, if I read correctly, 70 years after author's death becomes the pub dom figure - which seems, to me, extremely reasonable. I'm a life plus 10-20 man.
And please don't let's get into another l-o-ng diatribe about copyright....

If I'm right, at least a government wants to put extra stuff out there for us to read.

Doesn't it ?

[vice-versa]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

If I'm right, at least a government wants to put extra stuff out there for us to read.

Doesn't it ?

Yes that's it. Books that are non longer commercially used (ie : books that are out of print that publishers don't bother to reprint for one reason or an other) will be listed, and the BNF (that has a copy of each books published in France) will digitize it and make it available on the Internet (but not for free) through the process explained in the law. The money issued from the sales will be shared between the publisher and the author (or his/her heirs). When, at least, the book will fall in the public domain, then, I think (hope) it will be available for free. That what I understood

[LuvReadin]

Which I think is fair - a national library is a national resource, and if we believe that books should have a permanent storage place (and most of us do, I think), then I'm OK with them using those stored books to generate some income. I'm sure most authors' heirs would be too! Plus it makes those books available to people other than the favoured few who qualify for a card to enter those libraries and happen to be in the same physical location.

[TheSFReader]

The problem with that law, is that authors have only 6 month during which they can opt-out their book. And the publisher (who would have so far neglected the book) gets priority...

[LuvReadin]

Yes, 6 months isn't very long, but I would imagine that most authors would keep an eye on their own books - their heirs might not, but that's their problem (my personal feeling is that 70 years after an author's death is too long anyway; I'd prefer it to be 25, with perhaps an option to renew for another 25 , except in cases such as with Peter Pan, where the author wills the royalties to a charitable institution).

It doesn't seem (assuming the translation is accurate) that the publisher does get priority - it states 'equal representation for both author and publisher'.