What's new
PLR funding in Canada increased
The Canada Council for the Arts, which provides funding for PLR in Canada, has approved a $700,000 increase in funds for PLR which will underpin the next payments to authors in February 2009. The increase goes some way towards recognising the continued growth of the Canadian PLR scheme, but is not expected to fully restore the value of author payments to 1980s levels. In 1987 authors received $400 per book. In 2008 the figure was $268.
SAD LOSS OF ANTHONY QUINN
We are sad to report the death of our PLR colleague and friend, Anthony Quinn, who died peacefully at his home in Ireland on 28 April. Anthony had been attending PLR conferences on behalf of the Irish Writers Union since the first international meeting in England in 1995 and had campaigned for many years for the establishment of an Irish PLR system. His efforts were rewarded last November when PLR legislation was passed by the Irish parliament.
PLR recognition for Tony Quinn
The legislation to introduce PLR in Ireland was passed by the Irish parliament on 28 November 2007. The regulations determining how the new PLR system will be administered are currently being drafted by the government. At its recent Annual General Meeting the Irish Writers Union formally recognised the great contribution made by Tony Quinn to the achievement of Irish PLR. Tony has been a tireless campaigner for PLR in Ireland since the first meeting of the international PLR network in 1995.
UK'S MOST BORROWED AUTHOR
After a four year reign as the `Queen of library lending’, UK children’s author Jacqueline Wilson has been narrowly beaten into second place by US thriller writer James Patterson in the Most Borrowed Authors list.
Further details of the latest annual figures on library lending released by PLR in the UK can be found in the Media Centre section of the PLR UK website.
European Commission drops PLR proceedings
We understand that the European Commission has decided NOT to take legal action against the governments of member states that make PLR payments to authors writing in their national languages. The Commission had questioned the language criteria of these PLR schemes on the grounds that they might represent a sort of discrimination against the authors of other EU states. The countries concerned had always disputed the Commission's interpretation of their language policy, which they saw as central to the state's support for national culture and literature. This brings to an end a long-running discussion between the Commission and the member states concerned.
PLR on agenda at South African copyright conference
A copyright conference at the Cape Town book fair this month will include a discussion group and workshop on PLR to help promote interest in PLR in South Africa. The conference (or lekgotla) is being organised by ANFASA (Academic and Non-Fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa) and PASA (Publishers’ Association of South Africa).
More information from info@anfasa.org.za
calls for a new international PLR organisation
The Nordic Writers and Translators Council, at its meeting in Jokkmokk, Sweden, 25-26 May, passed a resolution calling for PLR to be regarded exclusively as the right of authors.
The Council has asked the European Writers Congress to investigate the feasibility of setting up an international PLR organisation that would be the equivalent of the International Federation of Reprographic Rights (IFFRO) in the reprographic field. The Council has also asked IFFRO not to become involved in PLR matters lest this might seem to ‘imply equal treatment of writers’ and publishers’ interests in the administration of PLR schemes’.
plr seminar
The fourth European PLR Seminar was held at the Petőfi Museum of Literature in Budapest 20-22 April 2007. The main purpose of the Seminar was to review the progress of Member States over the last year in implementing the PLR provisions of the 1992 Directive on Rental, Lending Rights and Piracy. The Seminar was a success with many positive reports of PLR developments in Member States. However there was still a lot of work to be done in some countries. Further details can be found under Events & Seminars.
Irish PLR legislation published
The Irish Copyright and Related Rights (Amendment) Bill has just been published. It provides for a new Irish PLR system, funded by central government and administered by the Library Council under the Department for Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The Department is empowered to make regulations for the detail of the new scheme.
First PLR Payments in Latvia
The first distribution of PLR payments to Latvian authors took place in November and was carried out by the authors’ society, AKKA/LAA which has responsibility for PLR in Latvia. Over 300,000 Euros were paid out to 1,089 authors (writers, illustrators, adaptors etc). This relates to book loans and loans of non-book material (sheet music and phonograms) in 2003 and 2004. AKKA/LAA has received funding from the government (around 220,000 Euros) to cover PLR payments for loans during 2005. Distribution is expected to take place in March this year.
PLR comes to italy
By a new law of 24 November 2006 the Italian government created a PLR fund under the Ministry of Culture to be administered by the collecting society, SIAE, for lending by public libraries. School and university libraries are excluded. 250,000 Euros has been allocated for 2006, 2.2 million Euros for 2007 and 3 million Euros for 2008.
Czech PLR on the way
The parliament of the Czech Republic has now amended its copyright legislation to introduce PLR. The new PLR legislation came into effect on 22 May 2006. The rate per loan will be 0.5 Czech Crowns (about 2 cents). The collecting society DILIA will administer PLR on behalf of authors. Funding will go into the National Library budget next year and the first payments are expected to be distributed to authors by DILIA in mid-2008.
Spain and Italy in breach of the Lending Right Directive
The European Court of Justice has ruled (on 26 October) that both the Spanish and Italian governments have not met their obligations under the 1992 Lending Right Directive. The European Commission had referred the cases to the Court in 2005 following the decision by Spain and Italy to exempt publicly funded libraries from any obligation to pay PLR. Although the Directive permits member states to exempt certain categories of lending establishment from PLR, the Court decided that it was unacceptable for almost all publicly funded libraries to be exempt as this deprived authors of the remuneration which was the principal objective of the Directive.
sad loss of john stanghelle
We are sorry to have to report the death of John Stanghelle, international secretary at the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association. He died on Friday, 8th September and the funeral was held in Oslo last Thursday. As PLR International Network members will know, John had worked tirelessly in recent years to plan and find funding for the PLR seminars that we held in London, Rome and Madrid. Those of you who attended the Madrid seminar in March this year will recall his presentation on the Norwegian PLR system. He will be sadly missed by all of us.
European Court of Justice finds Portugal guilty of improper implementation of the Lending Right Directive
On 6 July, the ECJ found the Portuguese government guilty of improper implementation
of the PLR aspects of the 1992 Directive. Portugal had used an article allowing
member states to exempt from PLR certain categories of establishment to exclude
all public, school and university libraries, all museums and public archives,
all public foundations and all private non-profit-making institutions from
PLR obligations. The Court of Justice rejected the case put by the Portuguese
government and upheld the Commission’s position that “an exemption
which exempts everyone is not an exemption but an annulment of the underlying
obligation”.
Welcome to the new look PLR International website
Today we launch our newly designed website. With so many new countries developing PLR systems and joining the international network, we felt it was time to modernise the website. We hope the information we have provided for each country is up to date, but please let us know if there have been developments since we were last in touch with you.
We have included in the ‘Established PLR Schemes’ section of the website only those countries that have made PLR payments. Other countries working towards the establishment of PLR systems are grouped under ‘PLR Schemes in development’ and will be moved over to the ‘Established’ group when they make their first payments.
We hope you will find the new website informative and easy to use –
and please send us your latest news so that we can keep the website up-to-date.
Berlin conference report
A report detailing the Berlin conference which took place in September 2005
is now available to view within the Events
& Seminars section of the website.
latvian plr success
Latvia now has a PLR system - Latvian copyright legislation has included
provision for PLR for some years now but the government hadn't provided the
money to set PLR up - until now. In December 2005 the government took everyone
by surprise by announcing that 268,000 Lats had been found from reserve funds
to cover PLR payments for years 2003 and 2004. The writers' organisation AKKA/LAA
will manage the new system.
Japanese authors call for PLR
Authors’ organisations in Japan, including associations representing
children’s writers, mystery authors and international PEN, have issued
a joint statement calling for the government to establish a system of compensation
for loans of their works from libraries.
New PLR systems expected in 2006
The 6th International PLR Conference was held in Berlin in September and
was hosted by the German collecting society, VG Wort. Some 25 countries were
represented at the conference, and delegates heard updates from the European
Commission on implementation across the European Community of the 1992 Lending
Right Directive, and discussions on the difficulties for the Scandinavian
PLR systems if their language eligibility criteria are to be removed to meet
EU requirements. Several countries reported progress towards PLR and the following
expected to see the introduction of PLR in 2006: France, Ireland, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, the Slovak Republic and Switzerland.
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