Frankfurt Book Fair survey on digitization

Via TeleRead, the 2008 Frankfurt Book Fair conducted a survey on how digitization will shape the future of publishing. The summary results are available in a press release.

These are the top four challenges facing the industry identified through the survey:

• copyright – 28 per cent
• digital rights management – 22 per cent
• standard format (such as epub) – 21 per cent
• retail price maintenance – 16 per cent

Not knowing what the details of these concerns really are in their survey results, as generalizations the first three are an interesting overlap with challenges facing digital collection building in libraries. What are appropriate terms for copyright and licensing for libraries? How do we identify/document copyright (and other rights) status? How do we manage access and provide for fair use with varying DRM scenarios? What standards will enhance preservation and ongoing access?