The ARLIS/NA Executive Board has endorsed the statement on copyright reform issued on May 16 by the Library Copyright Alliance, whose members include the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, and the Association of College and Research Libraries.
The full text of the statement can be read here.
The statement describes the key features that copyright reform proposals should include in order to constitute significant improvement over current law for libraries and their users. It addresses issues concerning orphan works, mass digitization projects, and modernization of Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act in the wake of the Google Books settlement rejection by Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District of New York.
ARLIS/NA joins other library organizations that advocate for reasonable copyright policy in the courts as well as in the U.S. Congress. Library activities already benefit from broad, flexible protection under the fair use doctrine and related provisions in current law, but technological advances in the means for storage and transmission have also brought new means of limiting access to copyrighted materials. We continue to support a balanced approach that preserves the intellectual property rights of creators and allows reasonable, non-exploitative access to works of scholarship and art.
Carmen Orth-Alfie and Roger Lawson
Co-chairs, ARLIS/NA Public Policy Committee