
French senate votes for e-book price fixing
<p>The French Senate has voted for price fixing on e-books, with the new law also banning libraries from offering e-books as soon as they are released.</p><p>E-books had been exempt from France's 1981 Lang law that stopped the sale of books for less than 5% below cover price.</p><p>Publishing Perspectives reports that Frédéric Mitterrand, French minister for culture and communication, hailed the passing of the law. </p><p>However, French publishing website Actualitté slammed it as a "catastrophe" because of its protectionist nature. It also criticised the law's stipulation that libraries cannot offer e-books for<br />lending at the time they go on sale.<br /><br /></p>