From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 26 May 2014 18:49:42 -0400

http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip/news/breakthrough-copyright-law-reform-confirmed

From CLIP in the UK:  "20 years of hard work by our sector has
resulted, at last, in the recognition that copyright laws are out of
kilter with the digital age and many of the activities taking place
across our libraries, archives, museums and educational
establishments, need to be supported by fit for purpose exceptions.
This will create legal certainty and achieve a better balance between
creators rights and user needs, and in doing this make copyright
itself stronger."

 CILIP writes further:

These vital changes include:

* Much needed digital preservation exceptions to prevent the loss of
vital sound recordings, film, as well as text based works.

* Allowing the digitisation of analogue collections and their use on
dedicated computer terminals on the premises of libraries, archives
and museums.

* New educational exceptions to support teaching, learning and research.

* An expansion of the fair dealing exceptions for private study or
non-commercial research purposes to cover not just text, as is the
case today but sound and film also.

* Amendments to Library Privilege so that publicly accessible not for
profit libraries can make fair dealing copies on behalf of their users
from all copyright works. It is great to see that for many of these
education and research exceptions it is recognised that sound and film
have equal importance in an education and cultural context as text
based materials.

* A new text and data mining (TDM) exception which will dramatically
boost non commercial research. In an era of “big data”, research must
be supported by allowing organisations and individuals, who have legal
access already to copyright materials, to extract facts and data
contained therein on a large scale. This new exception will provide
unlimited opportunities to support vital research leading to new
discoveries and greater innovation.

* Copying into accessible formats for readers who are disabled in any
way will be allowed, putting all citizens on a level pegging with the
able-bodied. (Currently the law only allows copying for the visually
impaired.)

* Vitally, many of these core “permitted acts” in copyright law given
to us by parliament will not be able to be overridden by contracts
that have been signed. This is of vital importance, as without this
provision, existing and new exceptions in law could subsequently
simply be overridden by a contract. Also many contracts are based in
the laws of other countries (often the US). This important provision
means that libraries and their users no longer need to  worry about
what the contract allows or disallows but just apply UK copyright
exceptions to the electronic publications they have purchased.


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