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| SUMMARY OF THE REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION ON DIGITAL BOOKS |
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In her letter to Alain Cordier on the task of the Commission for Reflection on Digital Books, Catherine Trautmann stated the three following priority objectives: to identify the effects of digitization and Internet development on the policy for books and reading; to clarify the positions of the various partners involved; to make proposals for new regulations enhancing cooperation between them. The analysis of these problems was then to lead the Commission to study the cultural, socio-cultural, economic and legal challenges posed by this new medium in the circulation of ideas and texts, particularly through the growth of virtual bookstores, and through the way the new medium was affecting creation and distribution of works as well as access to them. Finally, the Commission was to examine the 'state of the art' in navigation and digitization techniques, and propose solutions for whatever problems it might encounter in its analyses. In his preface to the report, Alain Cordier specifies that the position of the report is to define the problem, put forth ideas rather than make technical or legal recommendations, and base its analyses on themes specific to the publishing sector. The Digital World According to the report, it seems evident that the growth of digital technologies will usher in considerable changes, but what exactly those changes will be, is less clear. Among the possible improvements in our daily lives, the report mentions new forms of access to reading materials for the blind and visually-impaired. So far, says the report, the impact of these changes has been limited by obstacles such as access (few French households connected to the Internet, increasingly complex digital technologies), uncertainties inherent to the development of the technologies (permanence of archiving materials and hardware, cost of digitization, overcrowding of networks, etc.), low numbers of qualified people, and a lack of predictability regarding digital technology in the near future. Along with these technological contingencies, are industrial interests, which could interfere with the spreading of high-speed networks. Given all these factors, therefore, the report guards against making speculative forecasts or being excessively optimistic. More generally, the report asks what mode of communication will be given greater importance by digital information technologies, given that they carry all types of information faster and further, and combine various types of media. Applied to books, this question involves asking how one can take best advantage of digital technologies so that they promote reading, writing, thought and creation. Reaffirming the Essential Nature of Editorial/Publishing Activities One of the central theses of the report is to reaffirm the necessity for editorial/publishing activities (selection and editing of texts, public relations, etc.) in the designing of a book, even if it is digital, to distinguish it from mere documentation. The growth of digital books and the fact that they allow anyone to reach a virtually worldwide audience instantaneously should not dilute the role of publishers. On the contrary, in order to take best advantage of digital technologies, it is essential that we reaffirm the need for quality publishing, that would select information out of all that is available on the network, guide the audience in its choices, and enable authors to find more than virtual outlets for their work. The report also states that self-publishing will doubtless develop on the Internet but that it cannot, under any circumstance, become the future standard for publishing. In fact, to deny the function of publishing in the field of digital books would mean quite simply to deny the very essence of books. Hypertext, according to the report, allows readers to build their own pathways through texts, but requires a solid understanding of the medium for readers to fully use its features and find their way through huge sets of information along an infinite series of connections. This is therefore seen as a major educational challenge. It is also understood that while the function of publishing is indispensible, it does have to adapt to the new economic demands of the digital world. Digital technologies offer a clear advantage to micro-publishing sectors (research literature, poetry, hard sciences, some sectors of the humanities, etc.) in the form of digital printing for limited editions, and making materials directly available on the Web. The Internet can also serve as an experimental arena for young authors. The report further states that digital technologies offer real opportunities to publishers of large texts, and/or texts not requiring continuous reading (encyclopedias, research materials , etc.), and can help add value to archival materials owned by publishers. Remuneration of Creative Work : the Main Feature to Preserve The argument of the report in this regard could be schematized in the following manner: that the Internet has yet to define its own economic model; that economics is based on the trading of goods whose value is determined by scarcity; that creative work is the truest expression of scarcity; that creative works must be introduced on the Internet; that these creative works must be remunerated on the basis of intellectual and artistic property. It is observed that the Internet today is based
mainly on a culture of free materials. This culture has positive
aspects since it is based on a widespread sharing of information, but
it cannot constitute a sustainable economic model. Internet-users pay
for access to the network, but usually access content itself
free-of-charge, thus ensuring that value arises more from the
container than from its content. The challenge here is to define
conditions for equitable remuneration of authors and publishers by
reintroducing scarcity on the Internet, where, currently, infinite
amounts of information flow freely and are directly accessible.
Scarcity would require that really creative work, backed up by
publishing, become a quality-reference on the net. In the case of books, it is observed that texts currently offered on the network are sold for less than their hardcopy versions. However, if one takes into account the cost of printing a downloaded file (printer, paper, ink), the cost of printing a digital book becomes at least equivalent to the cost of buying a 'traditional' book, thus lessening risks of substitution for the moment. Indeed, one can even imagine digital books costing more than traditional books, if they include specific services such as hypertext links. In any event, all these issues highlight the difficulty in extending the concept of the single price to digital books. Electronic books, which are so far only at the prototype stage, would still follow an economic logic comparable to that of traditional books, since each downloaded work would be paid for, and would not allow copying or printing. The most sensitive issue is easily that of intellectual property, however, since the very essence of digital technology is to enable immediate copies in unlimited numbers at almost no cost. The status of authors as exclusive owners of their work is thus challenged : by the growth of collective works, by the fact that pieces of existing works can be used to infinitely combine content, by the lack of fixity in content, by the fact that all works become part of an ongoing process of 're-creation', and finally, by the international character of the Internet which makes application of national laws difficult. In fact, the ownership-based conception of literary property is hardly compatible with the nature of digital technologies, which replace an economy based on the trading of identified goods, with an economy of sharing, participation and networks. Therefore, in order to create scarcity, says the report, since scarcity is synonymous with value and with readers paying for content as a way to remunerate authors, it is essential that a means for tracking text-reproduction be introduced into the digital world (cf. ongoing research on DOI : Digital Object Identifier). Rapid technological advance in this field should help determine whether sufficiently reliable identification methods can help procure payments for individual uses of a work (pay-per-use), or whether flat-rate-payment options would have to be explored. Regardless of the modes of financing used to remunerate creative work, however, it is advised that they be accompanied by government aid to digital creative work, particularly by reinforcing the existing framework for aid to multimedia publishing. And because defending literary property should not interfere with the circulation of works on the Internet, the report suggests making amendments to Copyright. In this, it supports the proposal made by the French State Council (Conseil d'Etat) for the establishment of a High Council for Literary and Artistic Property (Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique). The report then emphasizes the risks involved in increased concentration among Internet-providers, a trend that might curtail innovation in this sector, lower standards for content and creation, and put pressure on the independence of publishers. The report notes that a majority of French publishers, particularly of small and medium size, seem to have disengaged themselves from the digital sector, thus leaving room for operators from outside the book-industry. This fact is unfortunate as it prevents publishers from defining multimedia development strategies to sell their products on different media. The report therefore insists on the need to introduce new regulatory mechanisms on digital networks, drawing both from the experience of the single price for books with its positive impact on publishing and retail, and from the practice of collective rights management for photocopying. Among other legal issues highlighted by the report are the extension of the reproduction right, the promotion of "fair-use", the status of collective digital works, for which the current model for "paper" works should apply, the question of legal jurisdictions (which law applies), and the issue of piracy. Overall, the report states its preference for pragmatic solutions, with recourse, for instance, to flat-rate-payment systems, adhering, here again, to the conclusions of the State Council's (Conseil d'Etat) report. Significant Adaptation as a Condition for New Growth in the Book Sector The report estimates that the digital world can offer real opportunities for the growth of the book industry if all its actors agree to adapt as required. Electronic book-sales, where growth seems inevitable, is seen as one of the major factors to be considered in this process, since although the economic structure of electronic business still calls for caution, it also fulfills the following five criteria for growth in this type of trade : choice of products (350 000 titles to choose from just on the French market), non-standardization of products (enabling the targeting of very specific audiences), knowledge of products bought (a book bought on the Internet is the same as that bought in a bookstore), adaptation of the products to customers' needs, and a high rate of production that the digital environment can efficiently absorb. The report recalls that currently, the single price is in fact being applied by French virtual bookstores, and that discounts offered by foreign sites are offset by costs of ordering and transportation, which for the most part, tend to bring prices up to French levels or even beyond. It states that the single price for books should apply to the purchasing of books on the Internet but not to downloaded texts (cf. supra). The report also suggests harmonizing VAT rates to 5.5 % for all published products, digital books being currently sold at a VAT rate of 20.6 %, adding that a legal definition would be required for what is meant by "published products". The report also states that electronic business and more traditional methods of book sales can be both competitive and complementary. Digital sales sources can offer considerable opportunities to specialized bookstores, and the example of Barnes and Noble (and France Loisirs for mail-order sales) clearly shows that virtual bookstores can also use traditional sales outlets to distribute their works. Thus the report calls on official bodies, particularly local governments, to reaffirm the value-adding role of traditional bookstores. Electronic book-sales can also lead to alliances between publishers selling their products on the Internet, and bookstores using more traditional methods. Another important option, in this regard, would be to set up terminals in bookstores so that books not available in the stores could be ordered off the network and printed on the spot (selective printing). Libraries are also seen by the report as a part of the book sector where missions and operations could be altered by the introduction of digital technologies. Indeed, the digitization of library documents would offer numerous advantages: easier storage, reduced document-deterioration, the ability to consult rare and fragile works, putting library catalogues on-line. The report states that digitization of library materials should mainly involve research works and works for the general public. But digital technologies would also bring libraries face-to-face with the problems of copyright registration and memory-conservation. Memory could be conserved by periodically saving content distributed on the Internet as is already the case in certain Scandinavian countries, but this would presuppose agreement on the type of content to be conserved and therefore a new definition of cultural heritage. The report then states that remote access to library materials would be a major opportunity, particularly for the democratization of culture and propagation of the French language, but that the digitization of documents thus required would have to be accompanied by a process of standardization, which, for the most part, has not yet begun. The report also indicates that the increasing use of digital media in libraries should be remunerated according to Copyright (at least according to the author's reading of the report and its proposals, although there remain some contradictions on this point), and that libraries, using digital technologies, could serve as showcases for the publishing sector, thus enabling book-sales at stores located nearby. Naturally, all this implies that libraries themselves take maximum advantage of the digital media, that they have high-quality hardware (high-speed lines) and training plans, especially since the profession of librarian is increasingly resembling that of a mediator between the general public and publishers. Reflecting on Changes even in the Ways We Think and Write Above and beyond technical, economic or legal challenges, the development of digital technologies may well alter our ways of thinking and relating to the world and other people. According to the report, the fixity that characterizes our current mode of thinking could be supplanted, in the digital world, by a flow of images and texts, thus negatively impacting the search for meaning and truth - often richer for its very slowness - and the building of intelligence, which is more than just the ability to accumulate information. "Digital technologies allow us to make links without reading and read without linking," says the report. Indeed, the concern expressed in the report does not so much involve the extinction of paper as the extinction of a mode of thinking, and therefore a mode of reading and writing, since they are intrinsically linked to the nature of books. Thus, "a digital book is no longer really a book" according to the report. In fact, the infinite quantity of information available on digital networks, the instantaneous nature of access to it, and the fact that it is constantly changing, all combine to create an emphasis on incessant forward-movement, where people surf and accumulate data without taking the time to analyze it and form ideas. Hence the increased need for mediating bodies, particularly schools, to give individuals a selection of information from which to develop their own knowledge, judgements and ideas. Hence also the imperative need to add value to all creative works on the Internet so they can include thought-provoking content. Indeed, even social links stand threatened by digital technologies, says the report, since a technical network, however sophisticated, can never develop more than episodic exchanges, unless accompanied by a socialized network further on. Even the act of writing, when confronted by the digital notions of speed and flow, may be altered. In professional, artistic or scientific communities, we might see the development of collective works, without a distinct author, like the team-written screenplays common in the United States. An Ethical Outlook Any ideas on the Internet must be part of an ethical outlook that promotes not only the "culture of freedom" currently characterizing this network, but also the need for regulation and a call to responsibility: in a word, democracy, which is the ability to live together. In this regard, the report mentions the paradox of the digital universe, where pluralism and freedom seem to go hand-in-hand with extremely sophisticated means of control, distribution and intrusion into people's private lives. The report also warns against the risk of a two-tier society, separating those who control information-access, from those who do not. In short, "as a culture medium for the emergence of ideas, for debate and critique, the digital world has no equivalent. However, to take the time to think and reflect, we always need fixity, and this is one of the merits of the act of publishing a book. Reading implies taking one's time to meditate on a text, creating and re-creating (it) as a reader [...], internalizing a mode of thought. But if the future were to be envisaged merely as a reproduction of the advantages of the paper culture, the preceding statement would be like looking ahead while "looking in the rearview mirror". And that is not the goal here. Rather, the objective is to recall that when we affirm the role of thought, as we conceive of the future, we affirm the need to ensure that the intrinsic value of books and thought will find new strength on the digital screens of tomorrow. Indeed, the evolution toward digital technologies will have been successful only if, in the final count, it enables better creative work, and this creative work helps us better understand the world and, from time to time, to transform it for greater justice and solidarity". |
| Annex Summary of proposals and possible follow-up issues presented in the report :
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