The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that public libraries may digitise books and make them available to the public at e-reading points within its vicinity, without the author’s/ publisher’s permission.
The ruling comes as the result of a case brought against the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany) by the publisher Eugen Kulmer. The university had made a digitised version of a work available via special e-reading points inside its library.
However, the Court also stated that users of such terminals would not be allowed to download copies of the work to take with them, or to print out the works as this would constitute a copy of the work.
Sources: Endgadget; Future of Copyright.