Copyright Challenges of Legal Deposit and Web Archiving in the National Library of Singapore

Abstract

This article discusses the development of web archiving in Singapore and its relationship to copyright law. The author describes legal deposit, its definition and historical development, the differences between voluntary and compulsory legal deposit, and the practices of such approaches within the National Library of Singapore. It highlights two main projects, the Singapore Memory Project and Web Archive Singapore (WAS). The paper analyses how the implementation of legal deposit for preserving web material creates a complex relationship between copyright and digital heritage, and describes difficulties that cover the information lifecycle of web archiving. Finally, the paper presents a set of conclusions and recommendations regarding the need for modifying copyright legislation to foster research activities within Singapore's knowledge economy.