Part 4: Intellectual property Section 31: Lending of e-books by public libraries
The Public Lending Right Act 1979 ("the 1979 Act") provides a right for authors, known as the "public lending right", to receive payments from a central fund in respect of such of their books as are lent out to the public by local library authorities in the United Kingdom.
	This section amends the definition of "lent out" in section 5 of the 1979 Act to extend the public lending right to include remote loans of e-books and audio-books from public libraries in the United Kingdom – that is, where those e-books or audio-books are communicated by means of electronic transmission to a place other than library premises.
	This section also amends section 40A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 so that copyright in an e-book or e-audio-book (as defined) within the public lending right scheme is not infringed by lending by a public library, provided that the e-book or e-audio-book has been lawfully acquired by the public library, and the lending of that book complies with any purchase or licensing terms that may have been applied to it.
	This ensures copyright owners have the right to authorise remote loans by public libraries of e-books and e-audio-books, and maintains the previous right to authorise such loans. This reflects the differences between digital and physical books and enables copyright owners to include technological features and/or terms and conditions in respect of e-books and e-audio-books to mirror physical lending.