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The EU Copyright Directive as Compared to US Copyright Law and its Implication for Libraries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2019

Extract

This article aims at analyzing the relations and differences between the United States of America Copyright Law and the European Union Directive 2001/29/CE and how they affect the management of protected work in the libraries.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by the International Association of Law Libraries 

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References

1 See Appendix 1 at the end of this article.Google Scholar

2 See Appendix 2 at the end of this article.Google Scholar

3 For a specific study on this issue I suggest El derecho de prestamo en España Suramerica y Union Europea, Derecho de autors .1. 2005.Google Scholar

4 During the IFLA General Assembly in Buenos Aires August in 2004 I proposed an IFLA declaration against the possibility of the spread of such a new right around the world.Google Scholar

6 Please note that a protected work can be reproduced on several formats, such as Braille, audio records, and electronic.Google Scholar

7 § 121. Limitations on exclusive rights: reproduction for blind or other people with disabilities67 Google Scholar

(a) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement of copyright for an authorized entity to reproduce or to distribute copies or phonorecords of a previously published, nondramatic literary work if such copies or phonorecords are reproduced or distributed in specialized formats exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities.Google Scholar

(b)(1) Copies or phonorecords to which this section applies shall —Google Scholar

(A) not be reproduced or distributed in a format other than a specialized format exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities;Google Scholar

(B) bear a notice that any further reproduction or distribution in a format other than a specialized format is an infringement; andGoogle Scholar

(C) include a copyright notice identifying the copyright owner and the date of the original publication.Google Scholar

(2) The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to standardized, secure, or norm-referenced tests and related testing material, or to computer programs, except the portions thereof that are in conventional human language (including descriptions of pictorial works) and displayed to users in the ordinary course of using the computer programs.Google Scholar

(c) For purposes of this section, the term —Google Scholar

(1) “authorized entity” means a nonprofit organization or a governmental agency that has a primary mission to provide specialized services relating to training, education, or adaptive reading or information access needs of blind or other persons with disabilities;Google Scholar

(2) “blind or other persons with disabilities” means individuals who are eligible or who may qualify in accordance with the Act entitled “An Act to provide books for the adult blind”, approved March 3, 1931 (2 U.S.C. 135a; 46 Stat. 1487) to receive books and other publications produced in specialized formats; andGoogle Scholar

(3) “specialized formats” means braille, audio, or digital text which is exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities.Google Scholar

8 - DMCA Section 1201 Anti-Circumvention Rule Making (ALA and other association position) DMCA and Libraries Google Scholar

The following summarizes the key sections of the DMCA that relate to libraries. For more in-depth analysis of the DMCA and its impact on libraries:Google Scholar

Prohibits the “circumvention” of any effective “technological protection measure” (e.g., a password or form of encryption) used by a copyright holder to restrict access to its materialGoogle Scholar

Prohibits the manufacture of any device, or the offering of any service, primarily designed to defeat an effective “technological protection measure”Google Scholar

Defers the effective date of these prohibitions for two years and 18 months, respectivelyGoogle Scholar

Requires that the Librarian of Congress issue a three-year waiver from the anti-circumvention prohibition when there is evidence that the new law adversely affects or may adversely affect “fair use” and other non-infringing uses of any class of workGoogle Scholar

Expressly states that many valuable activities based on the “fair use” doctrine (including reverse engineering, security testing, privacy protection and encryption research) will not constitute illegal “anti-circumvention”Google Scholar

Makes no change to the “fair use” doctrine or to other information user privileges and rightsGoogle Scholar

Exempts any OSP or carrier of digital information (including libraries) from copyright liability because of the content of a transmission made by a user of the provider's or carrier's system (e.g., the user of a library computer system)Google Scholar

Establishes a mechanism for a provider to avoid copyright infringement liability due to the storage of infringing information on an OSP's own computer system, or the use of “information location tools” and hyperlinks, if the provider acts “expeditiously to remove or disable access to” infringing material identified in a formal notice by the copyright holderGoogle Scholar

This section updates the current preservation provision of the Copyright Act (Sec. 108) to:Google Scholar

expressly permit authorized institutions to make up to three, digital preservation copies of an eligible copyrighted workGoogle Scholar

electronically “loan” those copies to other qualifying institutionsGoogle Scholar

permit preservation, including by digital means, when the existing format in which the work has been stored becomes obsoleteGoogle Scholar

9 - Tecnological measures Art.6 Directive Google Scholar

1. Member States shall provide adequate legal protection against the circumvention of any effective technological measures, which the person concerned carries out in the knowledge, or with reasonable grounds to know, that he or she is pursuing that objective.Google Scholar

3. For the purposes of this Directive, the expression “technological measures” means any technology, device or component that, in the normal course of its operation, is designed to prevent or restrict acts, in respect of works or other subject-matter, which are not authorised by the rightholder of any copyright or any right related to copyright as provided for by law or the sui generis right provided for in Chapter III of Directive 96/9/EC. Technological measures shall be deemed “effective” where the use of a protected work or other subject-matter is controlled by the rightholders through application of an access control or protection process, such as encryption, scrambling or other transformation of the work or other subject-matter or a copy control mechanism, which achieves the protection objective.Google Scholar

A Member State may also take such measures in respect of a beneficiary of an exception or limitation provided for in accordance with Article 5(2)(b), unless reproduction for private use has already been made possible by rightholders to the extent necessary to benefit from the exception or limitation concerned and in accordance with the provisions of Article 5(2)(b) and (5), without preventing rightholders from adopting adequate measures regarding the number of reproductions in accordance with these provisions.Google Scholar