Ladies and gentlemen!
I am very pleased to welcome you to
the fifth international conference on public lending right. It is
eight years since the first conference was held in the United
Kingdom, in 1995. Since then the number of countries interested in
this field has grown. We are particularly happy to welcome
representatives from Baltic States here to-day.
Books are of central importance in
our lives. That is why books hold their position in our
increasingly hyper-linked society. Books are a defining element in
our human lives. Therefore we cherish both access to books already
written, and welcome new books on the stand. This is our reason to
maintain our libraries, and increasingly implement and refine ways
to compensate our authors.
The Norwegian Public Lending Right
(PLR) system was established by law in 1956, and is today regulated
by the Law on Public Lending passed by the Norwegian Parliament in
1987. According to the law, the size of the compensation is settled
by negotiations between the government and an elected committee
representing the rights holders' organisations.
Negotiations have been conducted
since 1978, and agreements must be accepted by the Parliament. The
compensation is paid collectively to 16 funds managed by the rights
holders' organizations, according to agreement between the
organisations.
The money is not tied to the actual
rate of lending of specific books, but calculated from annual
library statistics on available stock. The payments have increased,
and last year the total was well over 61 million Norwegian kroner,
almost 8,2 million euros. The Norwegian PLR scheme is intended to
stimulate writing in Norwegian. Compensation for the public lending
of the works of foreign writers is not yet on the agenda.
Our scheme differs from other
countries. I understand that different approaches to PLR schemes
are one of the topics for discussion in this and previous
conferences. The Norwegian scheme has a nice democratic ring to it,
and should be looked upon as an important element in our cultural
policy.
The Norwegian PLR scheme must be
viewed in context with our Purchasing Programme for Contemporary
fiction, poetry, non-fiction and essays, and translations, which
has been in operation since 1965. The programme is managed by the
Norwegian Council for Cultural Affairs, and guarantees the
publishers a sale of a certain minimum number of copies of each
book published. The books are then distributed as gifts to the
public libraries, and to libraries in primary schools.
The program has broad support. Two
recent evaluation reports conclude that it has produced an
expansion of the markets for books and literature in Norway.
Because of a small and scattered population, and because we have
three official languages in Norway, full-scale national book
production would be impossible if the market should rule alone. The
purchasing program is a way to secure broad and vital contemporary
literature for children, young people and adults. In 2002 the
programme spent almost 66 million kroner, or 8,8 million euros on
contemporary literature.
Financially you might say that our
policy on literature and libraries is expenses that lead to other
expenses. This is, however, in line with Norwegian cultural policy
principles, namely:
- to stimulate growth of quality Norwegian literature being
written;
- to stimulate reading of quality literature; and
- to compensate the authors for the public use of their
works.
The appreciation of authors is also present in the European
Council Directive adopted in 1992. The directive requires that the
authors of books, films and any other copyright works, either have
the right to authorise or refuse lending of their works, or that
they be compensated for such public lending. Of course, several
countries both within and outside the European Union cannot be said
to comply with the intention expressed in this directive. However,
the global participation in this conference shows increasing
support for the importance of PLR schemes worldwide.
It is my hope that the meetings
during these two days will stimulate an even broader understanding
of PLR schemes in our countries respectively, and perhaps in the
future, in all countries.
Again, I wish you all welcome, and
the best for the conference. Thank you.