Government refuses to commit to DLR

26.08.20

During an unprecedented crisis that temporarily suspended physical borrowings from libraries across the country, and left many creators with diminished income, the Government has failed to adequately respond to the ASA’s calls for the expansion of the PLR/ELR payment schemes to include digital formats. We call on our members to join our campaign to request that the implementation of Digital Lending Rights be made a priority now.

For several years we have been in communication with the Office for the Arts, putting the case for an expansion of the PLR/ELR payment schemes to digital formats. In Australia, PLR/ELR payments are intended to compensate creators for lost royalties when physical print books are borrowed from a library for free, but this scheme does not currently include ebooks or digital audiobooks.

At a time when borrowing of ebooks and audiobooks is rapidly increasing, it makes no sense for an author or illustrator to receive PLR/ELR payments for a physical book, but nothing if the same book is loaned in digital format. Given that COVID-19 has resulted in substantially increased ebook and audiobook borrowing, the case for digital lending rights has never been more compelling.

And yet, in response to our most recent letter to the Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Paul Fletcher, requesting the prioritisation of this issue, the Minister has merely committed to monitoring the situation with no timeline for change. 

“We have patiently and cooperatively worked with the Office for the Arts and feel so disappointed by the lack of commitment to change. Particularly for our digital-only writers who are currently locked out of the PLR / ELR scheme, fixing this anomaly feels overdue. We appreciate that ebook licensing to libraries is complex but nothing that couldn’t be solved by setting a criteria for eligibility,” says ASA CEO, Olivia Lanchester.

We call on our members to join our campaign, and contact your local MP to request the expansion of the lending right schemes now. You can find the contact details of your MP here and download our template letter here.

To read more about Digital Lending Rights and our campaign, click here.