The EC calls for new laws to encourage the digitization of books in EU

The European Commission (EC) today called for creating a new EU legislation that allows the development of digitization projects promoted by books such as Google in the United States to respect "absolutely" the rights of authors.

So the commissioners spoke of the Information Society, Viviane Reding, and the Internal Market, Charlie McCreevy, in a joint statement before the meetings that the EC will hold this week to discuss the impact of services like Google Books, which aims Internet offer complete books.

To meet the "Herculean" task to digitize European volumes, of which only the national libraries of the European Union (EU) there are tens of millions, the commissioners expressed their welcome to the agreements between the public and private long as they comply "fully" intellectual property laws, to "ensure a fair return" to the authors.

Both felt that Reding as McCreevy European legislators must create a regulatory framework to pave the way for rapid deployment of these services, "similar" to the recent agreement reached by Google has made it possible in America.

In that regard, they noted that the goal is to eliminate the "old stereotypes" that have "difficult" debate in the past and focus on finding a better approach than current technology permits, while "is given a new impetus to cultural creativity in the digital age.

In his view, the digitization of books has to be guided by the public sector but should be supported agreements with the private sector.

"It is time to recognize that agreements between private and public agencies can combine the potential of new technologies and private investment with the rich collections of public institutions built over centuries," he stressed.

Moreover, the commissioners insisted that the digitization of works subject to copyright should fully respect intellectual property laws.

To do this, see a need to revise the current European regulatory framework and question whether it is appropriate for the digital age.

The EU executive will meet this week with cultural institutions, holders of copyright, companies in the fields of information technology and consumer associations to address the digitization of books in the EU.

Specifically, today has scheduled an informational hearing with Google representatives to discuss the deal that Google has signed with authors and publishers in the United States to digitize works.

Under that deal, which still must receive approval from a U.S. court, the authors will receive 63 percent of revenue generated works in Google Books Search.

The Commission stressed that, to date, no EU a similar strategy for authors to receive a fair return for access to their works on the Internet.

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