(5 June 2014) On the 1st June 2014, new amendments to the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 came into force. Hailed by the library community as a breakthrough in copyright law reform, the changes will enable UK librarians in the cultural heritage and educational sectors to provide reasonable access to important works from their collections without risk of infringement.
Important changes include: enabling digital preservation of sound and film recordings to prevent the loss of unique and culturally valuable materials; extending ‘fair dealing’ to cover all types of in-copyright works (not only text based works); introducing a new exception for text and data mining to boost non-commercial research in the era of “big data”; and protecting copyright exceptions in contracts for e-resources, vital in the digital age.
The reforms are significant to libraries in EIFL-partner countries because the issues are applicable to libraries everywhere.
Benjamin White (Head of Intellectual Property at the British Library) will provide an overview of the major changes applicable to libraries in the recent amendments to UK copyright law, as well as to issues that remain outstanding.
He will discuss the library campaign that led to the changes, lessons learnt and how libraries in EIFL-partner countries might benefit from the experience.
After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session.
The webinar is on 27 June and open to all with priority given to librarians from EIFL-partner countries. Seats are limited.
For full details visit the EIFL website.
