Controlled Digital Lending

Description

Maria Bustillos:

“Controlled Digital Lending (CDL), a legal framework authored by copyright scholars and lawyers that enables libraries to own and lend ebooks without violating copyright laws, by mimicking the terms of traditional library lending. CDL is rapidly gaining support in the library world.

It works like this:

• a library scans a paper book (that it has already bought, already on the shelves) from its own collection

• the paper book is taken out of circulation and put in inaccessible storage

• now there’s a scanned digital copy—just one!—representing the paper copy (which, again, is in the deepfreeze)

• the digital copy can be loaned to one patron at a time, just as if it were the paper book

• technology controls the loan, so the borrower can’t copy or download; only read

• once the loan period is done, the book returns automatically to the library, and the next user can borrow it

This concept is called “own-to-loan,” and it’s the basis of the system in place at the Internet Archive.”

(https://popula.com/2022/01/22/what-kind-of-writer-accuses-libraries-of-stealing/ )