Abstract

The emergence of electronic ink, reading devices with legibility levels comparable to paper books, with capacity to store several thousand books, the increase of digital publishing offerings and their increasing presence in publishers’ catalogues, the iPad success with benefits beyond conventional reading, and the emergence of new business models draw an inexorably digital picture in which the issue of copyright protection is essential for the development of the cultural industry. The success of internet business models depends in large measure on systems of digital rights protection. In this context, the development of DRM (Digital Rights Management) has been fundamental and is allowing the management of electronic rights with a certain confidence. This paper discusses DRM systems, their development, the content in which they are applied, and controversies generated in relation to matters such as the right to privacy.

Abstract

Practices for free digital content downloads in the publishing industry are referred to as a problem by cultural and business leaders worldwide. The creation of systems to protect the files, the emergence of national and international agencies to monitor illegal downloads, and the publishing industry’s reluctance to abandon the paper and embrace the digital formats, provide the context for a practice that is little studied when it comes to books. The aim of this paper is to analyze the conditions under which it occurs in Spain, examining the legal provision of content, and the availability of works in p2p networks and blogs. The hypothesis is that in the book arena, the content downloads do not have the relevance and scale they possess in music or film, and that in large part they are motivated by the lack of a legal offering that is varied and up-to-date, and by deficiencies in the sales and distribution platforms. The presence of the bestselling books in major sales platforms and in different file sharing networks is analyzed.

Abstract

We analyse different alternatives that facilitate the exploitation of intellectual property. Specifically, we deal with author’s rights. First we provide a general overview of the intellectual property concept and then we describe the rights management alternatives, including collective management and self management. Next, we analyse a selected set of  initiatives that enable users to self manage their intellectual property rights, by partially transferring them or by obtaining economic benefits in exchange. We finally propose the main features for a comprehensive intellectual property system and present the results and prototypes that our research group has obtained and developed.

Abstract

With the launch in September 2014 of the project eBiblio to lend ebooks, promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport in collaboration with the autonomous communities, began a new phase in the Spanish public libraries. The digital loan was incorporated into the rest of the services offered by the libraries and represented a number of management challenges. The changes have affected librarians who have had to be technologically trained to use a new service and users who also need to acquire a range of technological skills to access readings. In this article all aspects that converge in the digital loan will be described and the evolution and future prospects of the service will be analysed, focusing some of these aspects on the specific case of eBiblio Madrid.

Abstract

Despite the investment of economic and human resources made by Spanish public libraries to create digital collections while continuing to play their traditional role as mediators between users, technology, and reading, there are conditioning factors that make it difficult for e-book lending to be integrated as yet another service within those provided by libraries and to be fully accepted by readers. With the aim of identifying the elements underlying the slow consolidation of digital lending, a literature review was carried out to determine the state of the art, mainly in both the USA and Spain, the e-book market aimed at Spanish public libraries is analyzed, the technological difficulties involved in lending and downloading for users are presented, and the influence of the measures adopted by the publishing sector and public administrations are examined. The need to make license commercialization models more flexible, simplify digital rights management systems, and decouple collections from electronic lending platforms, as well as avoid the dispersion of library resources across various interfaces, is highlighted.