Copyright is not about just protection but was from its early days meant to balance the need to protect creators and entrepreneurs in the work with the user's right to access information and the expression of ideas. The mechanism that makes copyright work is in fact the exceptions and limitations are combined with adequate protection of copyright....We call for WIPO to establish global minimum mandatory exceptions and limitations to copyright and related rights because there is an imbalance in power due to the rightsholder having exclusive rights leading to the creation of monopolies of information. Libraries have a duty to facilitate access to information and knowledge and this does not mean simply making it easy to get permission to use a work for which the user often is required to pay or is otherwise restricted. Libraries also have a duty to support and develop a learning culture, the local and national economy and free civil societies, which means that a certain level of access to information needs to be by right which is what the limitations and exceptions to copyright ensure for the greater public good.
(PS: Although IFLA has endorsed OA and the draftA2K treaty calls for OA to publicly-funded research in Sections 5-1 and 5-2, the IFLA statement on the A2K treaty does not mention the OA provisions.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/08/2005 09:49:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
