Maltese authors will finally be remunerated every time their books are borrowed from any of the 43 public libraries.

The €10,000 scheme will be implemented by the end of the year, bringing the island in line with an EU directive on rights related to intellectual property.

Although introduced about three years ago, the scheme could only be implemented now because the necessary software to record the loan data was only installed recently at public libraries on the insistence of the National Book Council.

“I think it was high time to introduce this scheme. There is a local perception that authors make thousands of euros off books but we can only write books on the side,” said Mark Camilleri, author of recently-published police thrillers. He said a similar system should be extended to the local music scene as in Malta people seemed to expect intellectual property for free.

The chairman of the National Book Council – also called Mark Camilleri – said: “Until now, we have only €10,000 allocated for the scheme but we are pressuring the government to channel more funds.

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