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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 6800
January Session, 2023
LCO No. 3698
Referred to Committee on PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Introduced by:
(PD)
AN ACT CONCERNING ELECTRONIC BOOK AND DIGITAL
AUDIOBOOK LICENSING.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2023) (a) As used in this section: 1
(1) "Electronic literary material" means any digital audiobook or 2
electronic book; 3
(2) "Digital audiobook" means a sound recording of a reading of any 4
literary production that has been converted into or published in a digital 5
audio file that may be listened to on a computer or portable electronic 6
device; 7
(3) "Electronic book" means a text document converted into or 8
published in a digital format that may be read on a computer or portable 9
electronic device; 10
(4) "Portable electronic device" means any self-contained electronic 11
device for personal use for communicating, reading, viewing, listening, 12
playing video games or computing, including, but not limited to, a 13 Raised Bill No. 6800
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mobile telephone, tablet computer, electronic book reader and other 14
similar devices; 15
(5) "Literary monograph" means a literary work that is published in 16
one volume or a finite number of volumes; 17
(6) "Library" includes any (A) public library; (B) public elementary 18
school or secondary school library; (C) tribal library; (D) academic 19
library; (E) research library; (F) public archive; and (G) the Connecticut 20
State Library; 21
(7) "Publisher" means any person in the business of the manufacture, 22
promulgation, license or sale of books, audiobooks, journals, magazines, 23
newspapers or other literary productions, including those in the form of 24
electronic literary materials, and includes any aggregator who enters 25
into a contract with any library for the purpose of providing materials 26
for purchase or license from any publisher; 27
(8) "Aggregator" means any person in the business of licensing access 28
to electronic literary material collections that include electronic literary 29
material from multiple publishers; 30
(9) "Technological protection measure" means any technology that 31
enhances the security of loaning or circulating electronic literary 32
materials by a library; 33
(10) "Borrower" means any person or organization, including another 34
library, to whom a library loans media of any type; 35
(11) "Loan" means the creation and transmission by a library to a 36
borrower of a copy of any electronic library material and the deletion of 37
such copy by the library upon the expiration of the loan period; and 38
(12) "Loan period" means the time between the creation and 39
transmission by a library to a borrower of a copy of any electronic 40
library material and the deletion of such copy by the library, as 41
determined by the library. 42 Raised Bill No. 6800
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(b) The provisions of this section shall apply to any contract offered, 43
entered into or renewed by a publisher for the license of any electronic 44
literary material to any library in the state on and after October 1, 2023. 45
(c) No contract or license agreement between any publisher and any 46
library in this state shall preclude, limit or restrict the library from 47
performing customary operational or lending functions, including any 48
provision that: 49
(1) Prohibits the library from loaning any electronic literary material, 50
including through any interlibrary loan system; 51
(2) Restricts the number of times the library may loan any electronic 52
literary material over the course of the license agreement if such 53
agreement also restricts the library's loan period for electronic literary 54
material; 55
(3) Limits the number of electronic literary material licenses the 56
library may purchase on the same date such electronic literary material 57
is made available for purchase by the public; 58
(4) Prohibits the library from making nonpublic preservation copies 59
of any electronic literary material; 60
(5) Restricts the library from disclosing the terms of the license 61
agreement to any other library in the state; 62
(6) Restricts the duration of the license agreement unless the 63
publisher has also offered the library a license agreement (A) based on 64
a pay-per-use model, or (B) that provides for the perpetual public use of 65
the electronic literary material upon commercially reasonable terms in 66
consideration of the library's mission; or 67
(7) Requires the library to violate the provisions of section 11-25 of 68
the general statutes. 69
(d) A contract or license agreement between a publisher and a library 70
may require: 71 Raised Bill No. 6800
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(1) A limitation on the number of borrowers the library may allow to 72
have simultaneous access to any electronic literary material; or 73
(2) The library's reasonable use of any technological protection 74
measure that prevents a borrower from: 75
(A) Maintaining access to any electronic literary material beyond the 76
access period specified in the license; and 77
(B) Providing other borrowers with access to any electronic literary 78
material. 79
(e) Any publisher that violates the provisions of this section shall 80
have committed an unfair trade practice under subsection (a) of section 81
42-110b of the general statutes. 82
(f) Any contract or license agreement concerning electronic literary 83
material that includes provisions prohibited by section (c) of this act is 84
unconscionable within the meaning of section 42a-2-302 of the general 85
statutes. 86
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2023 New section
Statement of Purpose:
To prohibit publishers of electronic books and digital audiobooks from
including certain restrictions in contracts or license agreements with
libraries in the state.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]