[LIS-Forum] The Copyright Office is trying to redefine libraries , but libraries don’t want it — Who is i t for ?

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Mon Aug 15 13:16:39 IST 2016


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------

From:    "Prof. N. Laxman Rao." <naglaxman at yahoo.com>
Date:    Sun, August 14, 2016 10:26 pm
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https://blog.archive.org/2016/07/27/the-copyright-office-is-trying-to-redefine-libraries-but-libraries-dont-want-it-who-is-it-for/
The Copyright Office is trying to redefine libraries, but libraries
don’t want it — Who is it for?
Posted on July 27, 2016 by Lila Bailey
The Library Copyright Alliance (which represents the American Library
Association and the Association of Research Libraries) has said it does
not want changes, the Society of American Archivists has said it does not
want changes. The Internet Archive does not want changes, DPLA does not
want changes… So why is the Copyright Office holding “hush hush”
meetings to “answer their last questions” before going to Congress
with a proposed rewrite of the section of Copyright law that pertains to
libraries?
This recent move, which has its genesis in an outdated set of proposals
from 2008, is just another in series of out of touch ideas coming from the
Copyright Office. We’ve seen them propose “notice and staydown”
filtering of the Internet and disastrous “extended collective
licensing” for digitization projects. These and other proposals have
lead some to start asking whose Copyright Office this is, anyway. Now the
Copyright Office wants to completely overhaul Section 108 of the Copyright
Act, the “library exceptions,” in ways that could break the Wayback
Machine and repeal fair use for libraries.
We are extremely concerned that Congress could take the Copyright
Office’s proposal seriously, and believe that libraries are actually
calling for these changes. That’s why we flew to Washington, D.C. to
deliver the message to the Copyright Office in person: now is not the time
for changes to Section 108. Libraries and technology have been evolving
quickly. Good things are beginning to happen as a result. Drafting a law
now could make something that is working well more complicated, and could
calcify processes that would otherwise continue to evolve to make
digitization efforts and web archiving work even better for libraries and
content owners alike.
In fact, just proposing this new legislation will likely have the effect
of hitting the pause button on libraries. It will lead to uncertainty for
the libraries that have already begun to modernize by digitizing their
analog collections and learning how to collect and preserve born-digital
materials. It could lead libraries who have been considering such projects
to “wait and see.”
Perhaps that’s the point. Because the Copyright Office’s proposal
doesn’t seem to help libraries, or the public they serve, at all. Prof.
N.LAXMAN RAO,
President, Telangana Library Association
Member, Advisory Board, National Library, KolkataUGC-Emeritus Fellow
(2009-11)
Professor in Library and Information Science, Osmania University,
Hyderabad (super-annuated).
Formerly Director, UGC-Academic Staff College (2006-8).
Formerly President of Indian Association of Teachers in Library and
Information Science (IATLIS) and  Association of British Scholars (AP
Chapter) .






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