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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 1234
January Session, 2025
AN ACT PROHIBITING LIBRARIES FROM AGREEING TO CERTAIN
TERMS IN ELECTRONIC BOOK AND DIGITAL AUDIOBOOK LICENSE
AGREEMENTS OR CONTRACTS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2026, and applicable to contracts or 1
license agreements entered into or renewed on or after said date) (a) As used 2
in this section: 3
(1) "Electronic literary material" means any digital audiobook or 4
electronic book; 5
(2) "Digital audiobook" means a sound recording of a reading of any 6
literary production that has been converted into or published in a digital 7
audio file that may be listened to on a computer or portable electronic 8
device; 9
(3) "Electronic book" means a text document that has been converted 10
into or published in a digital format that may be read on a computer or 11
portable electronic device; 12
(4) "Portable electronic device" means any self-contained electronic 13
device for personal use for communicating, reading, viewing, listening, 14
playing video games or computing, including, but not limited to, a 15
mobile telephone, tablet computer, electronic book reader or other 16
similar device; 17 Substitute Bill No. 1234
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(5) "Library" includes (A) any public library, public elementary 18
school library, secondary school library, academic library, research 19
library or public archive (i) that is funded directly or indirectly, in whole 20
or in part, during a fiscal year by the state or a political subdivision of 21
the state, including, but not limited to, matching expenditures, grants, 22
loans, bonding, insurance or guarantees, and (ii) for the duration of any 23
fiscal year in which such funding is received and the fiscal year next 24
succeeding; and (B) the State Library; 25
(6) "Publisher" means any person in the business of the manufacture, 26
promulgation, license or sale of books, audiobooks, journals, magazines, 27
newspapers or other literary productions, including those in the form of 28
electronic literary materials, and includes any aggregator who enters 29
into a contract with any library for the purpose of providing materials 30
for purchase or license from any publisher; 31
(7) "Aggregator" means any person in the business of licensing access 32
to electronic literary material collections that include electronic literary 33
material from multiple publishers; 34
(8) "Technological protection measure" means any technology that 35
enhances the security of loaning or circulating electronic literary 36
materials by a library; 37
(9) "Borrower" means any person or organization, including another 38
library, to whom a library loans a copy of electronic literary material; 39
(10) "Loan" means the creation and transmission by a library to a 40
borrower of a copy of any electronic literary material and the deletion 41
of such copy by the library upon the expiration of the loan period; and 42
(11) "Loan period" means the period of time commencing with the 43
creation and transmission by a library to a borrower of a copy of any 44
electronic literary material and concluding with the deletion of such 45
copy by the library, as determined by the library. 46
(b) The provisions of this section shall apply to any contract or license 47 Substitute Bill No. 1234
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agreement entered into or renewed on and after July 1, 2026, by a library 48
in the state with a publisher for the license of any electronic literary 49
material. 50
(c) On and after July 1, 2026, no library in the state shall enter into or 51
renew any contract or license agreement with a publisher that 52
precludes, limits or restricts the library from performing customary 53
operational or lending functions, including any provision that: 54
(1) Prohibits the library from loaning any electronic literary material, 55
including through any interlibrary loan system; 56
(2) Restricts the number of times the library may loan any electronic 57
literary material over the course of the contract or license agreement if 58
such contract or agreement also restricts the library's loan period for 59
electronic literary material; 60
(3) Limits the number of electronic literary material licenses the 61
library may purchase on the same date such electronic literary material 62
is made available for purchase by the public; 63
(4) Prohibits the library from making nonpublic preservation copies 64
of any electronic literary material; 65
(5) Restricts the library from disclosing the terms of the contract or 66
license agreement to any other library in the state; 67
(6) Restricts the duration of the contract or license agreement unless 68
the library also has the option of a contract or license agreement on 69
commercially reasonable terms in consideration of the library's mission, 70
that either (A) is based on a pay-per-use model, or (B) provides for the 71
perpetual public use of the electronic literary material; 72
(7) Requires the library to violate the provisions of section 11-25 of 73
the general statutes; 74
(8) Provides that the contract or license agreement is not severable 75
from any provision within such contract or agreement that is found in a 76 Substitute Bill No. 1234
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judicial forum to be prohibited by this subsection; or 77
(9) Allows the enforcement of any of the provisions prohibited by this 78
subsection other than in a judicial forum. 79
(d) Any library in the state may enter into a contract or license 80
agreement with a publisher that contains: 81
(1) A limitation on the number of borrowers the library may allow to 82
have simultaneous access to any electronic literary material; or 83
(2) A provision concerning the library's reasonable use of any 84
technological protection measure that prevents a borrower from: 85
(A) Maintaining access to any electronic literary material beyond the 86
access period specified in the contract or license agreement; and 87
(B) Providing other borrowers with access to any electronic literary 88
material. 89
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2026, and
applicable to contracts or
license agreements entered
into or renewed on or after
said date
New section
Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
The title was changed.
GAE Joint Favorable Subst. -LCO