European Copyright Directive

[Ann Okerson <aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu>]

Of possible interest to liblicense-l readers:  news about the European
Copyright Directive, from Fred Friend of University College, London; and
from Barbara Stratton, the Library Association. FYI.  Ann Okerson

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 15:00:49 +0000
From: Fred Friend <ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk>
To: The Consortium List <consort@ohiolink.ohiolink.edu>
Subject: European Copyright Directive

You might like to know that the European Parliament yesterday approved the
new Copyright Directive and that, although not ideal, the text should
enable most fair use by librarians and library users to continue. A number
of nasty last-minute amendments were rejected by Members of the European
Parliament as a result of intense lobbying by library groups across
Europe, led by EBLIDA. For several months we have been sending faxes and
e-mails to MEPs and we have been told that they have received more
messages about copyright than about any other issue. The threats to
library services in the text proposed by the European Commission were
highlighted for us several years ago by Emanuella Giavarra, and Barbara
Schleihagen and Teresa Hackett of EBLIDA together with Emanuella have done
a tremendous job in mobilising librarians and academics across Europe to
secure changes to the original text, which would have resulted in payment
to the publisher for every single copy made by a librarian or library user
in paper or electronic format. We found that we were tarred with the same
brush as Napster and illegal copying of films and music. The result of all
the lobbying is a compromise but a workable compromise. The next stage is
for national parliaments to enact the European directive into national
legislation but we are not anticipating any major threats to fair use at
that level.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Frederick J.Friend, 
Director Scholarly Communication,
University College London,
Gower Street,
London WC1E 6BT,
England.
Telephone/Fax  020 7679 4529
Mobile 0774 762 7738    
E-mail       ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk   or    f.friend@ucl.ac.uk
Web         http://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarly-communication/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

___
Thursday, February 15th

Dear Everyone

Our campaign appears to have been successful! On February 14th the
European Parliament approved the Common Position with a few amendments.
Those most harmful to libraries were rejected. For more information visit
<http://www.la-hq.org.uk/hot_news/hotnews.html#Setback>
http://www.la-hq.org.uk/hot_news/hotnews.html#Setback to read Sandy
Norman's report. The next stage after adoption by the Council of Ministers
(which should go through) will be the process of the Directive's enactment
in UK law (probably next year).

Many thanks also to Eblida, IFLA, SCONUL, the Education Copyright Users
Forum and the other member organisations of the LA Copyright Alliance
which all played a most significant part in the lobby.

Yours sincerely
Barbara Stratton
Information Manager, Members' Information Centre
E-mail:  <mailto:Barbara.Stratton@la-hq.org.uk>
Barbara.Stratton@la-hq.org.uk   
The Library Association, 7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0500 Fax: +44 (0)20 7255 0501 
Textphone: +44 (0)20 7255 0505