Legislation on rental and lending rights and co-existence within the book sector

In November, 1992, the Council of the European Union adopted Directive 92/100, dealing with rental and lending rights and certain rights related to copyright within the field of intellectual property, conscious of the importance that appropriate protection of works has on cultural and economic development. The implementation in some European countries of systems for compensating authors for public lending has raised controversies, especially within the library community. In Spain, it is considered to be an unfair tax on libraries. Nonetheless, these systems are a basic tool for promoting culture and an incentive for literary creation. All of the parties within the book sector must co-operate and benefit mutually: it is not about splitting funding aimed at libraries in order to compensate authors, but rather to obtain a substantial increase that would benefit all stakeholders.