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Book Council: March 22, 2010
On March 22, Frederic Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication, chaired the Book Council which decided on several guidelines for digital issues.
1 / The digital situation of libraries
Bruno Racine, president of the BNF, submitted its report on the digital situation of libraries, suggesting a collaboration between relevant ministries (Culture and Communication, National Education, Higher Education, Foreign Affairs) and local authorities to adapt the public library to new digital uses. The Minister commended the collective work and decided to set up a Working Group on Digital Libraries, to implement the recommendations of the report as a framework and interdepartmental partnership. In this digital revolution context, Frederic Mitterrand wants to offer communities a digital contract for media libraries.
2 / The digitization of books and the issue of Google.
The Minister of Culture and Communication has proposed an agreement with authors and publishers to create a true alternative digital offer to Google Books through the use of part of funds from the Grand National Loan to revitalize hundreds thousands of works of the twentieth century now unavailable for sale (estimated between 500 000 and one million).
The project would rely on four basic principles: scanning the full body of works at the expense of the government through the Great loan and a comprehensive agreement on a large set of titles, surpassing the negotiation work by work, but with flexible mechanisms of entry or exit; securing legally binding the agreement between the three parties; a dissemination and commercial works model with mechanisms for income distribution to be defined.
Authors and publishers have approved the commencement of negotiations on this proposal, with the creation of a working group that could lead, within the month of July, an agreement between the three parties (Ministry of Culture and communication, authors and publishers).
The Minister further reiterated the importance of mastery of content by the public and private, but without denying the importance of Google in the digital world and the interest of a dialogue with the firm, or with others, to increase the visibility of French cultural content on the web, as long as they respect copyright and offer satisfactory conditions for government. The exchange of files, suggested by Marc Tessier's report, is the preferred mechanism, but does not limit others. The end date was chosen in July by members of the Book Council to reach a draft legislation allowing the publisher to retain control of prices in the digital world, stating in the meantime, the application conditions of adopted contractual solutions (contract of agency or mandate).
Finally, the need to reduce the rate of VAT on digital books has been reaffirmed by the Minister and the Council members.
3 / The proposed digital platform of independent booksellers.
Frederic Mitterrand expressed a desire to preserve the digital book trade from the monopoly of a few powerful players. For the independent bookstore, which remains the primary channel for book sales, to be a credible player in the digital arena, the Minister announced State support to the proposed digital platform in the form of a loan € 500,000 with no tax, via the National Book Centre. This future website retailer, which will open this year, should enable booksellers to share in online trading of physical books, but also to be ready now to respond to the boom in online books.
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