Andrew Albanese writes: “While a federal court is now deciding how to dispatch with Maryland’s library ebook law, lawmakers in Rhode Island this week have advanced the state’s own library ebook bill. On May 18, the Rhode Island Senate Education Committee unanimously voted to recommend passage and advanced Senate Bill 2842 out of committee and to the floor for a full vote. Like Maryland’s library ebook law—which was preliminarily enjoined after federal judge Deborah L. Boardman in February ruled that the law is preempted by the federal Copyright Act—Rhode Island’s law would also require that publishers that offer ebook licenses to the general public also offer to license those works to libraries and schools on ‘reasonable terms’ that would ‘permit libraries, schools, and educational institutions to provide their users and students with access.'”