Public Lending Right International has established itself as a formal international association. PLRI, previously an informal global network that operated since 1995, is now a legal entity under Swiss law and headquartered in Geneva.
Public lending right allows authors and other rightsholders to receive payment when libraries lend their works. While lending copyrighted texts and images is an exclusive right of authors and rightsholders, countries may provide copyright exceptions for public library lending or establish collective remuneration schemes.
PLRI's founding organizations are EVA (European Visual Artists), EWC (European Writers' Council), FEP (Federation of European Publishers), IPA (International Publishers Association), and the collective management organizations Reprobel (Belgium), La Sofia (France), and Stichting Leenrecht (the Netherlands). These entities represent authors, visual artists, publishers, and collective management organizations, and will bring together lending rights stakeholders globally to exchange best practices and provide technical assistance to countries establishing or improving PLR systems.
Arjen Polman, CEO of Stichting Leenrecht in the Netherlands, was elected president by the PLRI board of directors. "Formally establishing PLRI after 30 years of public lending right supporting text authors, visual authors, translators and publishers is a great step forward," Polman said. "We now invite all organizations that manage or distribute public lending rights to become members of PLRI as well as authors' and other rightsholders' organizations as they are also eligible."
PLRI plans to organize a PLR International Conference in 2026.
