Intellectual Property Office consultation on copyright exceptions
On 31 March 2010, the Advisory Council submitted its response to the Intellectual Property Office’s consultation entitled ‘Taking Forward the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property: Second Stage Consultation on Copyright Exceptions’. View the consultation document.
The Advisory Council believes that copyright exceptions are fundamental to the preservation and dissemination of archival content. It has concerns with the current copyright regime in two respects: undue complexity and anomalies/inconsistencies. For the regime to be effective in practice, and understood and observed by archivists and archival users, it needs to be simplified and harmonised wherever possible. Copyright exceptions should also be format-blind. An exception, once granted, should be applicable to all formats of information, and not just some. These are the two litmus tests which we have used to evaluate the Government’s proposals as set out in the Second Stage Consultation.
Advisory Council’s full response to the consultation (PDF, 150 KB)
Department for Culture, Media and Sport consultation
On 1 March 2010, the Advisory Council submitted its response to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s consultation entitled ‘Proposal on the Collection and Preservation of UK Offline and Microform Publications and UK Online and Microform Publications and UK Online Publications Available Free of Charge and Without Access Restrictions.’ View the consultation document.
The Advisory Council has a particular interest in United Kingdom online publications available free of charge and without access restrictions. The Advisory Council therefore supports the government’s proposals to legislate for archiving these online publications through a Statutory Instrument pursuant to the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003.
Advisory Council’s full response to the consultation (PDF, 110 KB)