Digital Preservation: awareness, Responsibility and Rights Issues

Abstract

Digital preservation is likely to involve copying and it is not clear whether UK law will allow the copying required. Negotiation of permission to copy for preservation purposes is likely to be time consuming and complex. Access rather than ownership models means that libraries may not be able to preserve material and other arrangements have to be made. There are various possible approaches to dealing with the issues, including extending legal deposit law, amending copyright and related law, development and use of preservation clauses in licences or collective licensing and the provision of preservation rights metadata. Surveys of libraries and publishers in the UK suggest that there is some lack of awareness of the legal situation and it is not clear how publishers will implement preservation. There is a need for clarification of the legal situation and a raising of awareness. Roles and responsibilities in digital preservation and the impact of new trends in electronic publishing also need to be investigated.