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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 6800
January Session, 2023
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 1
section: 2
(1) "Electronic literary material" means any digital audiobook or 3
electronic book; 4
(2) "Digital audiobook" means a sound recording of a reading of any 5
literary production that has been converted into or published in a 6
digital audio file that may be listened to on a computer or portable 7
electronic device; 8
(3) "Electronic book" means a text document converted into or 9
published in a digital format that may be read on a computer or 10
portable electronic device; 11
(4) "Portable electronic device" means any self-contained electronic 12
device for personal use for communicating, reading, viewing, 13
listening, playing video games or computing, including, but not 14
limited to, a mobile telephone, tablet computer, electronic book reader 15
and other similar devices; 16 Substitute Bill No. 6800
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(5) "Library" includes any (A) public library; (B) public elementary 17
school or secondary school library; (C) tribal library; (D) academic 18
library; (E) research library; (F) public archive; and (G) the Connecticut 19
State Library; 20
(6) "Publisher" means any person in the business of the 21
manufacture, promulgation, license or sale of books, audiobooks, 22
journals, magazines, newspapers or other literary productions, 23
including those in the form of electronic literary materials, and 24
includes any aggregator who enters into a contract with any library for 25
the purpose of providing materials for purchase or license from any 26
publisher; 27
(7) "Aggregator" means any person in the business of licensing 28
access to electronic literary material collections that include electronic 29
literary material from multiple publishers; 30
(8) "Technological protection measure" means any technology that 31
enhances the security of loaning or circulating electronic literary 32
materials by a library; 33
(9) "Borrower" means any person or organization, including another 34
library, to whom a library loans media of any type; 35
(10) "Loan" means the creation and transmission by a library to a 36
borrower of a copy of any electronic library material and the deletion 37
of such copy by the library upon the expiration of the loan period; and 38
(11) "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
(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 Substitute Bill No. 6800
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(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 50
material, 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 65
of the electronic literary material upon commercially reasonable terms 66
in 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 70
library may require: 71
(1) A limitation on the number of borrowers the library may allow 72
to have simultaneous access to any electronic literary material; or 73 Substitute Bill No. 6800
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(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 84
section is unconscionable within the meaning of section 42a-2-302 of 85
the general statutes. 86
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2023 New section
PD Joint Favorable Subst.