New InfoJustice post about the article Protecting Library Rights; Considerations for Congress by Katherine Klosek
September 6, 2023
Klosek highlights the challenges faced by libraries in the United States, such as not having enough bargaining power to retain their rights when negotiating with vendors for digital scholarly content, and inability to preserve scholarly works. There are however, some ways in which libraries can protect their interests. Certain states have proposed legislations which would prevent the enforcement of contractual terms that limit copyright exceptions and limitations such as the Rhode Island bill (House Bill 5148). A federal level solution would possibly involve revisiting the Digital Choice and Freedom Act, introduced by Representative Zoe Lofgren in 2002, which would amend the U.S. Copyright Act by adding a section that would protect the rights of libraries and other consumers of digital works by voiding nonnegotiable license terms that restrict limitations and exceptions. The Copyright Office has also argued that preservation of scholarly works is an important public policy objective, and that nonnegotiable licenses should not be permitted to supersede the Section 108 exceptions, particularly the preservation and replacement provisions. In May 2033, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) sponsored a user-rights symposium with the American University Washington College of Law Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, exploring ways that copyright law protects users’ rights internationally.