Driving UK research. Is copyright a help or a hindrance? A perspective from the research community

• British Library

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09 August 2010In this collection of essays, fourteen researchers explain how the current copyright system inhibits their research.

This collection of essays, sourced from the education and research community, present varying views to the working and interpretations of the UK’s intellectual property laws. They are not intended to reflect nor endorse one another, but instead together present the ‘grassroots view’ of the UK’s copyright framework and ideas on how it could be updated to work in this new and changing environment. There is a consensus that the laws on copyright and their interpretation must be redefined in the context of a modernising world and developing research techniques.

Each of these authors and contributors to the knowledge economy, has encountered obstructions and barriers in their daily work when faced with understanding copyright regulations. They have made their own suggestions and proposals as to how the law can be modified in order to reflect the needs of today’s researcher. The British Library’s aim in compiling this collection is to contribute practical examples of how copyright affects the UK research community in the ongoing debate on our intellectual property framework.

The changes that contributors have proposed are their own and not the British Library’s. They cover a range of areas and include a wealth of ideas:

• calls for an extension to fair dealing provisions under UK copyright law to bring them into line with fair use doctrine in the US. One author addresses the difficulties of applying fair dealing provisions in the study of music and sound recordings.

• allowing the use of ‘orphan works’. One submission advocates that ‘orphan works’ be placed in the public domain.

• enforcing creators’ moral rights in order to preserve future creativity, and the need for exceptions to copyright law not being overridden by contract or by technical protection measures.

• addressing the issue of text mining and data indexing in the context of the barriers posed by the existing copyright regime.

A key point that resonates throughout these essays is that the role of teachers, researchers and creative artists as well as rights holders must all be recognised within any new intellectual property framework.