SR63

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	63
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

URGING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO AMEND FEDERAL COPYRIGHT LAW TO EXPLICITLY PROTECT CURRENT LENDING PRACTICES OF NONPROFIT ONLINE LIBRARIES.

WHEREAS, an informed populace is vital to a functioning democracy; and

WHEREAS, access to publications increases the collective knowledge of the people; and

WHEREAS, traditional brick-and-mortar public libraries facilitate collective knowledge by acquiring books and lending those books to the public, free of charge; and

WHEREAS, nonprofit online libraries work on this same principle in the virtual realm by acquiring and maintaining numerous hardcopies of books, scanning digital versions of those books, and lending those digital versions to the public, free of charge; and

WHEREAS, nonprofit online libraries do not lend out the hardcopies in their inventories; and

WHEREAS, the number of digital copies of a book that an online library lends out at any given time never exceeds the number of hardcopies of that book in the library's inventory; and

WHEREAS, a number of major publishers claim that this lending system is in violation of copyright law, and are seeking relief in the case of Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, which is pending before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; and

WHEREAS, an adverse outcome for the nonprofit library in the foregoing case would have a devastating impact on its patrons and stem the flow of knowledge; and

WHEREAS, the United States Congress has the power to amend copyright law; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, that the United States Congress is urged to amend federal copyright law to explicitly protect current lending practices of nonprofit online libraries; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

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