On August 18 the Authors Guild filed comments with the United States Copyright Office regarding whether online-only books should be required to be deposited with the Library of Congress. Currently, two copies of the best edition of all books published in the United States must be deposited with the U.S. Copyright Office for the use of the Library of Congress; books published only in electronic format, however, are exempted. We took the position that because online-only books are an important and growing part of our nation’s literary output, they should indeed be part of the collections of our national library. But due to the sheer volume of online-only titles published every year, and the burdens mandatory deposit would place on independently-published authors, these books should not be required to be deposited with the Library of Congress, unless specifically requested by the Library.
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