In September 2018, Authors Alliance joined with other organizations including the Digital Public Library of America, Internet Archive, and UC Berkeley Library to sign on to a statement in support of Controlled Digital Lending (CDL). CDL offers a good-faith interpretation of copyright law for libraries considering digitizing works in their collections and circulating the digitized title in place of a physical one. The statement is accompanied by an in-depth white paper by David Hansen and Kyle K. Courtney analyzing the legal arguments for CDL.
Under the CDL’s digitize-and-lend model, libraries make digital copies of scanned books from their collections available to patrons (the hard copy is not available for lending while the digital copy is checked out, and vice versa). A library can only circulate the same number of copies that it owned before digitization. Like physical books, the scanned copies are loaned to one person at a time and are subject to limited check-out periods.
System design choices and collection decisions, like selecting books that are orphaned (works for which the copyright owner cannot be identified or located), books that are out of print, or books that are non-fiction or primarily factual enhance the fair use arguments that underpin CDL. As Hansen and Courtney explain, CDL is “not meant to be a competitor to Overdrive, nor a replacement for licensing e-books of best-sellers or other currently licensable e-book content,” but CDL is particularly helpful to “address access to the large number of books published in the ’20th Century black hole’ that have little hope of otherwise bring made available to readers online.”
Libraries are now using CDL to lend books, so we asked our members to share their views on their books being made available through CDL. Here’s what they had to say:
CDL benefits authors, readers, and researchers
I was thrilled to see one of my books available through Controlled Digital Lending at the Internet Archive. It’s an older book that’s relatively hard to find, and I’m so pleased that people can get access to it today. CDL is an excellent way for authors like me to reach readers. But it’s also a way for authors to do research without having to visit remote archives or libraries. I’ve done a great deal of historical research on out-of-print books and periodicals through CDL programs, and I’m incredibly grateful for it.
– Annalee Newitz
Author and Journalist
CDL helps to increase access to
out-of-print and otherwise unavailable works
Controlled Digital Lending provides authors with an opportunity to reach a broad public, especially if their books have gone out of print. It does not cut down on their royalties any more than sales to libraries do, and by making works widely available, it can give them new life. Several of my books are accessible through CDL, and I am delighted with the result.
– Robert Darnton
Professor of History and University Librarian Emeritus, Harvard University
CDL is a reasonable interpretation of fair use
CDL is beneficial for all authors whose readerships are not served by the narrow interpretation of the fair use doctrine that is the foundation of various objections to CDL. Library lending must move forward into the digital future, and part of that future is getting more authors’ works into the hands of more readers, which CDL helps to make possible. Only a few authors’ needs are served by restrictive models of access: most of us need all the help we can get connecting readers to our works! In addition, libraries are among the most important institutions in contemporary society, representing freedom of access to information. How many other ideals-driven public institutions are as alive as the library world? The CDL is an important 21st century expansion of that mandate. Let objecting authors remove their works, and let the rest of us share our books with the reading public through library systems.
– Megan Prelinger
Author
Inside the Machine: Art and Invention in the Electronic Age (W.W. Norton, 2015)
Another Science Fiction Advertising the Space Race (Blast Books, 2010)
CDL can alleviate the gaps in availability
brought about by overly long copyright terms
In the treacherous, fearful underworld of Rights and Permissions I am often confused: I know that the Evil Mouse, manipulating the late Rep. Sonny Bono and others, extended copyright beyond reason. My feeling is that if my books bring royalty money to my children after I am gone, that is good. But as to my grandchildren—I love them beyond measure, but let them write their own books.
I don’t want to deprive any fellow-writers of income from their creations. Those property rights sometimes conflict with the author’s desire—strong in us poets—to be read. Those conflicting values: to be valued, and to be read—are part of what makes the terrain so scary.
May Controlled Digital Lending, as a protective guide there, be wisely Controlled.
– Robert Pinsky
former U.S. Poet Laureate
CDL helps authors reach audiences
I write so that people will read my books. That’s reason enough for me to support CDL.
– Paul Brest
Former Dean and Professor Emeritus (active) at Stanford Law School