AKeynote: Rights and Distribution : Legal Problems of Document Delivery by Libraries
A long time ago the world of libraries consisted exclusively of analogue media. Books, journals or documents were printed on paper, musical information was hidden in an analogue track on a vinyl disk and movies were only available on film or video tape, both as analogue data too. Copying an analogue information source always resulted in a massive loss of quality. In the analogue world major legal problems with reproductions for document supply just didn’t exist. It was a just case of fair use or any similar legal concept. No national legislation mentioned the problem of document supply. But these days are gone. In the age of digital media it suddenly is possible to produce an exact reproduction of an original without any loss of quality. So document supply by libraries and interlibrary loan moves nearer to the production of originals. In recent years cases against libraries were brought before court, copyright bills containing specific regulations about document supply were brought into national parliaments and licence offers are lavished on libraries, worked out by huge global law firms. The law discovered document supply.
This presentation will give a short overview about the legal basis for document supply in several countries around the world, with special emphasis on Scandinavia.
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