Legal Issues

This workstream will make recommendations regarding how to approach and influence the legal and copyright environment in order to support equitable knowledge distribution in a digital world. This track is focused on assessing legal and copyright issues such as digital lending, orphan works, international works, and strategies for tiered access, or how to deal with vendors and materials under various kinds of restrictions.

Meetings and notes

• Legal Issues Meeting Notes: October 20, 2011

Overview

Big issues: We need both to get done what we can today, as well as to consider a package of law reforms that will help. Issues that had the most energy around them: the doctrine of first sale in a digital era, as well as orphan works. But we also must set aside issues that are out of scope (e.g., the work-for-hire issues associated with faculty work in universities).

Co-Chairs

Jim Neal, Columbia University

Pamela Samuelson, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology; Berkeley Law School and School of Information

Questions for Discussion

Please feel free to add new questions to this list, either by creating an account or by emailing dpla@cyber.law.harvard.edu with your additions.

Special thanks to Pam Samuelson for developing an initial list of discussion questions.

• Within the bounds of existing law, what can libraries do to digitize their collections and make at least some parts of in-copyright works publicly accessible?
• What models already exist in other national initiatives with regard to copyrighted and orphan works? What can we learn from them? Are they applicable to the US context?
• What options for private ordering (for instance, academic author dedications of their old books to Creative Commons licenses) might usefully supplement other digital library initiatives?
• If Judge Denny Chin does not approve the Google Book Settlement (or is reversed on appeal if he does approve it), what kind of legislation might bring about the socially beneficial aspects of the deal without its many downsides?
• What can DPLA do to achieve legislation that permits digitization, preservation, and responsible dissemination of orphaned works?
• Should the DPLA even bother adhering to copyright law?
• How should the DPLA address works whose digital rights are constrained by third-party permissions (e.g., block the display of photographs)?
• What rights, if any, would DPLA have to proprietary metadata (e.g., MARC)?

Suggested Resources

Please feel free to add resources and new categories to this list, either by creating an account or by emailing dpla@cyber.law.harvard.edu with your additions.

For additional articles and blog posts on the Google Books Settlement, see Media and Blog Mentions: Google Books Coverage & Thoughts

• IFLA draft treaty on copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives, {http://www.ifla.org/publications/draft-treaty-on-copyright-exceptions-and-limitations-for-libraries-and-archives]
• Iris Jastram and Steve Lawson, An ebook plan by Iris Jastram and Steve Lawson, March 9, 2011.
• Congressional Research Service, The google library project: Is digitization for purposes of online indexing fair use under copyright law?, R40194, Nov 27, 2009. Available at http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40194_20091127.pdf
• Pamela Samuelson, Google Book Search and the Future of Books in Cyberspace, 94 Minn. L. Rev.1308 (2010). Available at http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~pam/GBSandBooksInCyberspace.pdf
• Pamela Samuelson, Papers, Presentations, Briefs, etc. on the Google Book Settlement. Available at http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~pam/GBS.html
• Jonathan Band, The long and winding road to the google books settlement, 9 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 227. Available at http://www.jmripl.com/Publications/Vol9/Issue2/Band.pdf
• Laura N. Gasaway, Amending the Copyright Act for Libraries and Society: The Section 108 Study Group, 70 Alb. L. Rev. 1331 (2007). Available at http://www.albanylawreview.org/articles/Gasaway.pdf
• Denise Troll Covey, Acquiring copyright permission to digitize and provide open access to books, Digital Library Federation (October 2005). Available at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub134/pub134col.pdf
• Creative Commons Licenses: Strategic Implications for National Libraries, Olivier Charbonneau, August 14th 2010, 76th IFLA WILC. Available at http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/132-charbonneau-en.pdf
• John Wilkin, Bibliographic Indeterminacy and the Scale of Problems and Opportunities of "Rights" in Digital Collection Building, Ruminations (February 2011). Available at http://www.clir.org/pubs/ruminations/01wilkin/wilkin.html
• The Public Index
• James Grimmelmann, Inside Judge Chin's Opinion, March 22, 2011.
• Public Domain Information project. Available at http://www.pdinfo.com/, added June 2011.
• U.S. Copyright Office. Available at http://copyright.gov/, added June 2011.
• Daniel Reetz, New York Law School, "The Why in DIY Book Scanning." Available at http://www.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/17/49/1080/55-1%20Final%20Reetz%2011.17.10.pdf, added June 2011.
• Seth Reagan, "Digital Textbooks to the Rescue." Available at http://www.jdsupra.com/post/fileServer.aspx?fName=0834ca77-f579-40cc-a2b3-324f12a33054.pdf, added June 2011.
• Dave Hansen, "Orphan Works: Definitional Issues," Berkeley Digital Library Copyright Project, White Paper No. 1 (December 2011), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1974614.
• Association of Research Libraries, "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Research Libraries," (January 2012), http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/code-of-best-practices-fair-use.pdf
• Dave Hansen, "Orphan Works: Mapping the Possible Solution Spaces," Berkeley Digital Library Copyright Project, White Paper No. 2 (March 2012), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2019121.

Membership Sign-up

All workstream members should join the DPLA Legal Workstream listserv at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/lists/subscribe/dpla-legal.

Please also add your name to the list below. If you would like to edit this wiki, please create an account.

• Umesh Thakkar, uthakkar@gmail.com
• Ana Enriquez
• Charles Nesson
• Brandon Butler
• Greg Cram, The New York Public Library
• Wilhelmina Randtke, Florida State University Libraries
• Matt Vitins
• Bronwen Densmore
• Aaron Kirschenfeld, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill