Bookshelf agreement

Agreement regarding the digital dissemination of books (The Bookshelf agreement)

between

The National Library of Norway
on the one hand,

and

Kopinor

on behalf of the members of
The Norwegian Authors’ Union, The Norwegian Publishers’ Association, The Writer’s Guild of Norway, The Norwegian Specialized Press Association, The Norwegian Association of Fine Arts Photographers, The Norwegian Society of Authors, Grafill – Norwegian Organisation for Visual Communication, Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association, The Norwegian Music Publishers’ Association, NOPA Norwegian society of composers and lyricists, The Norwegian Association of Professional Photographers, The Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers’ and Translators’ Association, The Norwegian Union of Journalists, The Norwegian Society of Composers, Norwegian Critics’ Association,  The Norwegian Association of Literary Translators, The Association of Norwegian Editors, Norwegian Comedy Writers’ Association, Norwegian Association of the Periodical Press, Norwegian Writers for Children, The Association of Norwegian Visual Artists, Norwegian Association of Arts and Crafts, New Music Composers’ Group and foreign rightsholders’ organisations
on the other hand.

BACKGROUND

Over the course of more than 500 years, close to 700 000 books have been published in Norway. This literary cultural heritage is a central part of our collective national memory and is a unique source of culture, knowledge and identity for all Norwegians. All through history new books will arrive, only to disappear again from our collective consciousness and become unavailable to us.

There is a broad consensus in Norway to make this literary heritage accessible to the public. The National Library of Norway, which has been tasked with preserving and making published content available to the public, has digitised its entire collection of books.

Kopinor is authorised to negotiate extended collective licensing agreements that facilitates compensation to authors and publishers and give the public access to published works.

PURPOSE
Section 1
The Bookshelf agreement, between The National Library of Norway and Kopinor, will ensure that the general public in Norway is provided with digital access to a large number of copyright protected Norwegian books which would otherwise have been difficult to access or might have been forgotten altogether. The purpose of the agreement is to provide the public with access to a unique source of reference material which contributes to the growth of knowledge, culture and education through full-text search and lookup functions in this book corpus. The agreement is a contribution from Norwegian publishers, writers and other creators to ensure that this national literary heritage remains a core part of our future development of society and knowledge.

THE SCOPE OF THE AGREEMENT
Section 2
The agreement concerns the digital dissemination of printed books and similar types of works published in Norway until and including the year 2005, hereunder translated literature. Material where the copyright has expired is not regulated by this agreement.

Section 3
Subject to the conditions stated in this agreement and within the frameworks as stated in Section 2, the National Library of Norway is granted the right to make available published copyright-protected material. This right includes the necessary reproduction of display copies based on the digital storage copies that the National Library of Norway makes, pursuant to the regulations to the Norwegian Copyright Act (FOR 2021-08-26-2608 Section 3). The agreement applies to Norwegian and foreign publications whose rightsholders are represented by Kopinor.

The provision stated in the first paragraph means, pursuant to the Norwegian Copyright Act (LOV-2018-06-15-40) Section 50, cf. Section 63, that published materials created by rightsholders not represented by Kopinor are also covered by the agreement.

HOW THE MATERIAL MAY BE DISSEMINATED
Section 4
The material may be made available on the National Library of Norway’s webpages for users with Norwegian IP addresses. Furthermore, the National Library of Norway may on specific requests give other users access for distinct purposes, mainly for research and educational purposes, on terms defined by the involved parties.

Section 5
Only digitised versions of books and similar printed publications may be made available to the public under this agreement. 

The agreement does not cover published audio books, e-pub or other digital formats.

The material is to be made available for viewing on a computer screen through online displays of scannned book pages in which ever format currently being used on nb.no.

No arrangements are to be made for downloading, copying, printouts or any other off-line use of the material. 

The service is set up so that benificiary persons, cf. regulation to the Copyright Act, Section 13.2, may acquire the information obtained from the material on the same terms and with the same limitations as others.

The material, metadata excluded, will not be made searchable via external search engines.

The material shall not, unless specifically agreed upon, be used to build language corpuses or training resources for artificial intelligence beyond the authorisation given to the National Library, cf. regulation to the Copyright Act.

CREDITING OF AUTHORS BY NAME, ETC.
Section 6
The name of the creator of the work and the work’s title are to be stated in the manner required by proper usage, cf the Norwegian Copyright Act, Section 5, Section 23, subsection four and Section 25.

OPTION TO WITHDRAW WORKS
Section 7
Kopinor may withdraw book titles from the scope of the agreement on request from a rightsholder. The parties will agree on the exact procedure for this withdrawal.

REMUNERATION
Section 8
In 2024 a total of NOK 24,5 million will be paid for the digital dissemination of copyright-protected works under this agreement.

Section 9
The payment is to be adjusted in accordance with the regulation of the price index, for the first time concerning the 2025 remuneration, thereafter annually on 31 December in accordance with changes in Statistics Norway’s consumer price index or any other consumer price index that replaces this. The adjustment is to be made on the basis of the change in the consumer price index from 15 October of last year until 15 October of this year, and correspondingly for future years.

Section 10
Payment of the remuneration is due at the earliest on 30 June. Kopinor will send an invoice with a 30-day payment deadline.

BREACH OF THE AGREEMENT AND DAMAGES
Section 11
Should the agreement be breached, a period of 30 days from the date when written notification of this is received is allowed for rectification.

Section 12
Should a party fundamentally breach the agreement and the matter not be rectified pursuant to Section 11, the other party may cancel the agreement with immediate effect. Cancellation is to be declared in writing, stating the grounds for the cancellation. Damages for breach of the agreement may be claimed irrespective of whether or not the agreement is cancelled.

Section 13
By entering into this agreement, the rightsholders have not renounced their right to claim damages and bring a civil action against the National Library of Norway for copying that is not permitted by this agreement. If the National Library of Norway has settled a claim from Kopinor relating to such copying, Kopinor undertakes to pay the rightsholders’ claims regarding this use.

Section 14
Should this agreement be cancelled or terminated, the National Library of Norway is obliged to remove from their open webpages all copyright-protected materials that cannot, pursuant to the law or a separate agreement with rightsholders, be made available.

CHANGES TO THE AGREEMENT
Section 15
If conditions essential to the agreement should change, the parties have the right to ask for a renegotiation of the terms of the agreement, including the size of the remuneration.

OTHER PROVISIONS
Section 16
The parties have an equal financial responsibility regarding claims from outside rightsholders if the claim pertains to access provided for users without a Norwegian IP-address, cf. Section 4. Beyond that Kopinor are committed to covering any claims of remuneration or compensation that the National Library of Norway should receive from Norwegian or foreign rightsholders in so far as these claims pertains to copying or dissemination paid for and executed in accordance with the terms of the agreement, cf. the Copyright Act Section 64. The National Library of Norway are not committed to covering such claims, and Kopinor will indemnify the National Library of Norway for any costs arising from such claims. If any claims are received, the National Library of Norway shall reject them, and refer to Kopinor. No claims are to be settled unless agreed upon with Kopinor. In the event of a dispute of claims Kopinor have the right to intervene.

Section 17
The parties will work together regarding information activities concerning the agreement and the service.

Section 18
The material shall include a copyright notice/acceptance clause explaining what the permitted use of the service is. This notice shall be sanctioned by both parties.

REPORTING
Section 19
The National Library of Norway will, subject to agreement, provide Kopinor with information about the disseminated material for distribution purposes.

Section 20
The National Library of Norway will, subject to agreement, give access to the necessary statistics concerning the disseminated material.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Section 21
Any dispute between the parties about the agreement, regarding its interpretation or existence, breach of the agreement or claims that in some other way are based on an agreement between the parties related to copying, shall initially be sought resolved through negotiations between the parties.

Should such negotiations fail to succeed, either party may demand that the dispute be resolved through arbitration. The Arbitration Tribunal is to be composed of three members. The parties are each to appoint one member and will jointly appoint a chair. Should the parties fail to agree on a chairman, this person will be appointed by the president of the Norwegian Bar Association. Otherwise, the provisions stipulated in the Norwegian Arbitration Act shall apply.

The parties may each petition for mediation pursuant to Section 65 of the Norwegian Copyright Act.

THE DURATION OF THE AGREEMENT
Section 22
The agreement is valid for the calendar year of 2024. The agreement is automatically renewed for one year at a time, unless one of the parties terminates the agreement in writing no less than three months before the end of the calendar year (within the expiration of 30 September). The agreement replaces the previous Bookshelf agreement of 28 August 2012.

Oslo, 13 October 2023

For the National Library of Norway

Aslak Sira Myhre
National Librarian

For Kopinor

Hege Munch Gundersen
CEO