British Library on DRM
p2p news / p2pnet: No one likes Digital Restriction Management applications (DRM), except the entertainment and software cartels and their adherents, and the companies making and peddling the so-called copyright protection software.
Now the chief executive of the British Library has come out against restrictive DRM which, she says, is getting in the way of fair dealing rights.
Urging policymakers, "to balance the rights of content creators with the need to maintain access in the public good," ceo Lynne Brindley, "welcomed current moves to modernise the regulatory framework for Intellectual Property (IP) – particularly the Gowers Review, to which the British Library has made a major submission – but also warned that DRMs are already having an impact on the traditional exceptions to copyright law that have existed for libraries," says eGov Monitor.
"We at the British Library use DRMs to manage our collections and we recognise they can be a valuable tool," Brindley stated.
"However, while protecting rights holders against infringement they can prevent copying of material for fair dealing purposes. Digital material generally comes with a contract, and these contracts are nearly always more restrictive than existing copyright law and frequently prevent copying, archiving and access by the visually impaired."
Britain’s national library also suggests intellectual property law should change, "to clarify that fair dealing rights refer to digital as well as print items, that copying is essential for digital preservation purposes and that the preservation needs of sound recordings from the past – as well as the future – also need to be recognised".
"A healthy creative economy needs an IP framework which rewards creativity and innovation while being balanced with protecting the legitimate public interest of supporting an informed citizenry and a healthy research base for the long-term economic and social good of the country," eGov Monitor has Brindley saying.
"Digital developments mean that such a framework cannot simply be national. It has to be developed in an international context and within a global economy."
Digg this story.
Also See:
eGov Monitor – Library warns of ‘more restrictive’ DRMs, June 8, 2006
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