Put Public Pressure On Publishers
Publishers Push, Libraries Pay
Publishers are forcing libraries to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits public entities from excluding or discriminating against disabled individuals in their services, programs, or activities. Publishers are doing so by imposing restrictions on their ebooks that prevent libraries from providing accessible books to disabled individuals.
At the same time, publishers are forcing libraries to violate their duties under 17 U.S.C. § 121, which allows authorized entities, such as public libraries, to reproduce or distribute copies of books in accessible formats exclusively for use by eligible disabled people.
Technological protection measures (TPM) and digital rights management (DRM) restrictions imposed by publishers may also prevent libraries from providing accessible formats. For instance, Amazon was pressured into removing their text-to-speech function on Kindle 2 by the Authors Guild and publishers. This established a standard in which publishers typically require aggregators to use DRM software that limits the reading application for ebooks, often preventing disabled readers from accessing essential assistive technologies like screen readers or text-to-speech tools. The Amazon case is just one more example of how publishers may further cause libraries to violate the ADA and their duties under § 121.
What Can Libraries Do?
Libraries can act to ensure that disabled patrons have equal access to ebooks by investing in DRM-free content or negotiating for contract language that limits what DRM can be used for, as mentioned earlier. Because purchasing DRM-free content can be expensive for individual libraries, collective action between libraries and their communities can be effective in pressuring publishers to provide less restrictive ebook licenses that comply with the ADA and § 121 at a reasonable price.
