Russian Publishers Balk at Government Ebook Mandate

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Russian publishers are fighting a government mandate that requires them to offer ebook editions of all their titles for a new national digital library.

By Eugene Gerden

Fearing lost sales and potential piracy, the Russian Book Chamber (RBC), the Russian association which unites the country’s leading book publishers, has opposed a state proposal to oblige publishers to produce electronic copies of their new books.

According to Pavel Zotov, Executive Director of RBC, this may even result in a collapse of the Russian publishing industry. “The Russian government has decided to save money on digitization. At the same time the problem also lies in the fact that Russia still has very poor legislation in the field of copyright. The provision of an electronic copy of each new book to NEL will result in its automatic launch into the market and huge losses of publishers.” 

The government plans to use such electronic copies for stocking the newly established National Electronic Library (NEL), which an electronic fund of federal, regional and municipal libraries as well as of the funds of academic and educational institutions, says Zotov.

At present the NEL only works a small share (no more than 10%) of all publications issued in the country, but has announced plans to increase this number dramatically.

Before there a mandatory production of electronic book copies is implemented, there is a need to design and instill a regulatory framework, say the publishers. 

In the meantime, according to a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Culture, the government will buy copyright for the desired titles to make them available in the NEL. The rights purchases will cover a limited number of “checkouts,” and will be subject to renewal for additional fees.

According to Maxim Ryabyko, head of the legal department of Eksmo, Russia’s leading publishing house, the company opposes such an initiative because it limits publishers ability to protect their content from unauthorized proliferation. 

Microsoft to Help Digitize St. Petersburg’s Books

In the meantime, Microsoft has signed an agreement with the 197 libraries of the city of St. Petersburg to digitize collections and their transfer these to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, where they will be stored for a period of 100 years.

The project is estimated to be valued at some 50 million rubles (US $ 890,000), with potential for further investment.

According to Anton Zhandarov, head of IT sector of the Mayakovsky Library, one of Russia’s best known literary institutions, approximately 120,000 books — or 17% of the libraries holdings — have already been digitized. The resulting files are equivalent to one petabyte.

The volume of data that will be transferred on the platform each year will vary in the range of 100-500 terabytes.

According to Zhandarov, the Azure platform offers improved safety, security and affordability over other existing solutions. 

The transfer of Russian library books to the cloud became a pressing issue following a fire at the Library of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (INION) of Russian Academy of Sciences, which destroyed some 1.5 million books and historic documents.

The post Russian Publishers Balk at Government Ebook Mandate appeared first on Publishing Perspectives.

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