users negotiated directly with publishers and publishers offered them the same contracts agreed to by libraries – they could be deemed unenforceable and unlawful, falling foul of unfair contract terms laws. Yet, because libraries are negotiating on their behalf no such legal protections apply.


For the sake of our patrons, it is time to ensure that libraries too benefit from protection from highly asymmetrical bargaining powers.


Market power


The UK could also look at how copyright law arguably makes some academic publishers gatekeepers of the British taxpayers’ huge investment in research (circa £20 billion per annum). Brussels has moved to regulate certain digital gatekeepers (i.e. Big Tech) in recognition of the market and societal harms that can arise from their dominance. e.g. Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act. Given the chokehold that these STM companies can have over data-driven innovation in the knowledge economy, there is a strong case for applying a similar regulatory logic in the UK.


While pure competition interventions may not be applicable, there are ways of providing access to publicly funded research in order to support the economy and the NHS. For example, in scientific publishing, nine European countries (https://tinyurl.com/6r8mxkpf) have introduced secondary publishing rights which allows the immediate republication of publicly funded articles in an open access repository irrespective of the rights granted to the publisher. We are also expecting Brussels to introduce a pan-European secondary publishing right. There is nothing to stop us introducing such as right here (https:// tinyurl.com/mwbz3f8z).


Let libraries be libraries Bringing all of these perspectives together, the Let Libraries Be Libraries campaign aims to work with library and information workers and institutions to highlight to policy makers the urgent need to focus on and support libraries to ensure that sustainable equitable access to knowledge is not just a relic of the analogue era.


Our campaign looks at libraries across Europe. However, in terms of a legal underpinning for libraries and their users, particularly for UK institutions, the cam- paign focuses on the need to:


l Ensure that libraries and their com- munities have the right to access digital material on reasonable terms. The goal- posts which have been moved one way in the digital era can be moved back by amending copyright law to allow libraries


28 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL


Knowledge Rights 21 website https://knowledgerights21.org.


to buy any electronic content on the mar- ket at the rate consumers can and lend them on a one copy one user basis – this is line with a European Court of Justice ruling on eBooks from 2016. Supported by authors (https://tinyurl.com/fairEbook) laws that require access on reasonable terms may also help as we see being introduced in a number of American states (https:// tinyurl.com/evolutionEbooks). But one person’s reasonable is another’s unreasonable, and any law will require prescriptive drafting that makes clear what constitutes unrea- sonableness. It must also provide quick and proportionate remedies for libraries.


l Protect our institutions from unequal bargaining power in the way consumers are – unfair terms legislation. To protect the public’s access to information through libraries, existing unfair contract terms legislation should be extended beyond just consumers to encompass libraries as well as education and research institutions. This would help put an end to unaccept- able practices such as unlimited liabilities, signing contracts in foreign laws that the institution has no knowledge of, unilateral changes to subscribed to bundles, limiting the rights of licensees etc.


l Put an End to Misuse of Digital Tools to Restrict Lawful Public Interest Activities. Publishers’ use of anti-copying software (DRMs or TPMs) routinely hinders re- searchers and students from being able to make lawful copies of subscribed to digital content. They can prevent fair dealing copies for research being made, or as this survey (https://tinyurl.com/liberTDMsurvey) from the UK Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance and European Library Associ- ation (LIBER) shows, routinely prevent users of library collections from under- taking text and data mining and machine


learning despite UK law specifically mak- ing this lawful. Where “digital locks” prevent lawful activities, this can be solved easily by updating copyright law, as some other coun- tries have done, to require publishers to give access to content in 72 hours or less. Given that the certainties around access to knowledge via libraries that we had in the analogue era have all but disappeared, it is vital that leaders from libraries, universities and research organisations focus on informing policy in this area. Decision-makers hear plenty from those who have benefitted from the shift of power away from libraries and their users. They need to hear from our sectors why it’s time to re-establish the balance that existed before.


Access to all types of information and a flourishing science matters a great deal to a modern research-intensive and creative economy like that of the UK. It is vital that policymakers be made to understand that investing in amending the laws that reg- ulate what libraries and universities can do with information is urgently required. We need modern copyright laws as well as competition law-influenced “information gatekeeper” laws. We also need to protect the public interest by protecting public institutions from unfair contract laws and behaviours. If we don’t, we will look back from an impoverished digital future to the second half of the 20th century as the heyday of workable investment in an equi- table and democratic British society. Details for joining Knowledge Rights 21’s new community of practice around eBooks should soon be available on its website (https://knowledgerights21.org). This will providing a space to share experience and insights into trends, learn what is possible from around Europe, and build up the case for action. IP


June-July 2026


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