Libraries warn of copyright ‘nightmare’

Date: 23/10/1997

By Peter Chapman

EU LIBRARIES are warning the European Commission of a “nightmare future” if they are not given special exemptions from proposed new rules for copyright in the digital age which are due to be unveiled later this year.

The draft proposals, which are currently the subject of debate within departments across the Commission, are expected to include an attempt to thwart online pirating by strengthening copyright protection for areas such as the music industry.

But the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA) is urging the Commission to temper this expansion of rights with a promise to maintain the current exemptions from copyright rules enjoyed by libraries.

EBLIDA secretary-general Barbara Schleihagen said libraries should be allowed to distribute or copy works to legitimate users across electronic networks without having to pay each time.

“The Commission wants to harmonise all the copyright laws in the EU in line with the single market. But in this area it is so easy to forget about democratic values. This is a world that only seems to talk about money,” she said.

The library lobby shares the widespread concern that pirates could take advantage of the high, digital quality of material distributed online to make an unlimited number of perfect copies.

But EBLIDA has warned the Commission that it fears a “nightmare future” for libraries in which “nothing can be looked at, read, used or copied without permission or payment”, said Schleihagen.

This concern has been compounded by big increases in the cost of scientific journals and higher prices charged by publishers for electronic information licences, which are hitting scholars.

These licences often carry with them a requirement to buy a hard copy of the work, meaning that only the richest libraries would be able to survive if exemptions from these conditions were not granted.

EBLIDA argues that the directive should follow the line set by the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO) Berne Convention, which was updated last year. “The Berne Convention sets the right tone. But the Commission is still very free to define copyright rules in a restrictive way,” said Schleihagen.

The WIPO treaty gives authors the exclusive right to control the reproduction of their works “in any form”. But at the same time, it gives a crucial exemption in “certain special cases”.

This exemption, which EBLIDA wants enshrining in the EU directive, is seen by libraries as their chance to use and distribute copyrighted material across electronic networks.

It argues that if publishers are selling products via networks such as the Internet, libraries should still be allowed to distribute material, but on a pay-per-view basis, with royalties going to rights holders.

EU sources insist that the Commission will not forget the needs of users as it moves to strengthen the rights of content providers in the draft directive.

The Commission's proposals are expected to be unveiled in late November. If EBLIDA's demands are not met, MEPs and EU governments will face a lobbying assault by the association as it seeks to amend the draft rules.