I think this speach from a high official withing the European Union is
of interest in this debate.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/10/619
From the speech::
Look at the situation of those trying to digitise cultural works.
Europeana, the online portal of libraries, museums and archives in
Europe, is one key example. What a digital wonder this is: a single
access point for cultural treasures that would otherwise be difficult to
access, hidden or even forgotten.
Will this 12 million-strong collection of books, pictures, maps, music
pieces and videos stall because copyright gets in the way? I hope not.
But when it comes to 20th century materials, even to digitise and
publish orphan works and out-of-distribution works, we have a large
problem indeed. Europeana could be condemned to be a niche player rather
than a world leader if it cannot be granted licenses and share the full
catalogue of written and audio-visual material held in our cultural
institutions. And it will be frustrated in that ambition if it cannot
team up with commercial partners on terms that are consistent with
public policy and with the interests of right-holders. And all sorts of
other possible initiatives, public and private, will also be frustrated.
From the speech:
Today our fragmented copyright system is ill-adapted to the real essence
of art, which has no frontiers. Instead, that system has ended up giving
a more prominent role to intermediaries than to artists. It irritates
the public who often cannot access what artists want to offer and leaves
a vacuum which is served by illegal content, depriving the artists of
their well deserved remuneration. And copyright enforcement is often
entangled in sensitive questions about privacy, data protection or even
net neutrality.
It may suit some vested interests to avoid a debate, or to frame the
debate on copyright in moralistic terms that merely demonise millions of
citizens. But that is not a sustainable approach. We need this debate
because we need action to promote a legal digital Single Marketin Europe.
My position is that we must look beyond national and corporatist
self-interest to establish a new approach to copyright. We want "une
Europe des cultures" and for this we need a debate at European level.
The Commission will soon make legislative proposals on orphan works and
on the transparency and governance of the collective management
societies. We will examine again the problem of divergent national
private copy levies. We will also look into multi-territorial and
pan-European licensing. And we will not stop exploring ideas for as long
as the system is not working.
Jan
Karen Coyle skrev 2010-11-08 09:40:
> rothman has been pushing this for at least 10 years, but I think he
> doesn't understand the basic economics. What he wants is for there to
> be one, big public digital library that lends digital books to anyone
> for free. So... where would revenue for the publishers come in? He
> thinks that some kind of monolithic fee system would satisfy the
> publishers, but where would the money for a tempting fee come from?
> Libraries manage because they *don't* pay a per-use fee. He somehow
> thinks that "magic will happen" that will make all of this
> economically feasible. In fact, he thinks this would save libraries
> money. I think he engages in utopian thinking.
>
> kc
>
> Quoting "B.G. Sloan" <bgsloan2_at_YAHOO.COM>:
>
>> Interesting blog post on The Atlantic magazine web site by David
>> Rothman, "the founder of TeleRead, the oldest English-language site
>> offering general e-book news and views."
>>
>> "Might the time have finally come for a well-stocked national
>> digital library system (NDLS) for the United States? That's the
>> topic of this essay, and many of the same concepts could apply to
>> other countries, including Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy,
>> Australia, Japan, China, India, Brazil, and various other nations.
>> Perhaps national digital library systems could interconnect, forming
>> a global one. But for simplicity's sake and reasons of self
>> interest, I'll focus here on a digital system for the United States."
>>
>> Full text at: http://bit.ly/dz23Rj
>>
>> Bernie Sloan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
--
De åsikter som framförs här är mina personliga
och inte ett uttryck för Göteborgs universitets-
biblioteks hållning
Opinions expressed here are my own and not
those of the Gothenburg University Library
Jan Szczepanski
Förste bibliotekarie
Goteborgs universitetsbibliotek
Box 222
SE 405 30 Goteborg, SWEDEN
Tel: +46 31 7861164 Fax: +46 31 163797
E-mail: Jan.Szczepanski_at_ub.gu.se
Received on Mon Nov 08 2010 - 04:14:26 EST