Friday, August 29, 2008

Report: International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation

Press release....

July 14, 2008 -- The Library of Congress has released the International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation. The report is a joint effort of the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, the Joint Information Systems Committee, the Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law Project, and the SURFfoundation.

There are significant technical, financial and legal obstacles to digital preservation. This Report focuses on the law – in particular, on copyright and related rights issues. As the laws of the countries discussed in the report demonstrate, in many cases exceptions and limitations do not accommodate the actions required for digital preservation. The copyright and related rights issues, and various strategies to address them, are discussed in detail in the report.

The report is available here (PDF file, 1.58Mb)

The report is 214 pages. Section 1.7 provides a roadmap to the report. (Note that all paragraphs in the report are numbered):
1.71 The following sections discuss, for each of the jurisdictions represented in this report:
  • Major digital preservation activities currently ongoing;
  • The copyright and related rights laws that bear on preservation, and relevant exceptions and limitations;
  • Areas where there is tension between the laws and digital preservation activities;
  • Current efforts within existing law to undertake digital preservation, either through exceptions and limitations or pursuant to agreements with right holders; and
  • Recommendations for change.
1.7.2 The final section of the report consists of a summary of the report’s major findings and a series of joint recommendations agreed to by all of the organizations that participated in the study and the preparation of this report.


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