Dr Harald Müller, Director of the Library at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, who will be covering the issues faced by libraries pertaining to application of rights and how such issues impact on the acts of distribution.

Abstract

Once upon a time the world of libraries was filled with just analogue media. Books, journals or documents were printed on paper, musical information was hidden in an analogue track on a vinyl disk and movies were only available on film or video tape, both an analogue media too. Copying any analogue information source always resulted in a massive loss of quality. In the analogue world major legal problems with reproductions for document supply just didn't exist. It was a case of fair use or any similar legal concept. No national legislation mentioned the problem. But the good
old days are over. In the age of digital media it suddenly is possible to produce an exact reproduction of an original without any loss of quality. So document supply by libraries and interlibrary loan moves nearer to the production of originals. In recent years cases against libraries were brought before court, copyright bills containing specific regulations about document supply were brought into national parliaments and libraries found in their mail licence offers worked out by huge global law firms. The law discovered document supply.

This presentation will give a short overview about the legal problems libraries might face today with document supply, but will also speak against the radical commercialization of information, as free access to knowledge is a human right.