Copyright: Interpreting the Law for Libraries, Archives and Information Services

Citation

Secker, J. (2010), "Copyright: Interpreting the Law for Libraries, Archives and Information Services", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 170-172. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330331011039535

I eagerly awaited my copy of Graham P. Cornish's Copyright book, now on its fifth edition. The fourth edition has helped me to answer sticky copyright queries on numerous occasions and I have found it an essential book in my day‐to‐day job. Had I not been asked to review the book I would have bought a copy as I find the earlier edition so useful and I was interested to see what new topics had been added to the book, which was last published in 2004. Copyright laws are constantly evolving to try to keep pace with technological developments. Therefore it is unsurprising that a book such as this will need updating at regular intervals. However, once again Cornish has written a useful, practical and easy to interpret guide for those of us dealing with copyright queries at the “coal face”. It is aimed at those working in all types of libraries and archives, and includes all sorts of copyright issues that might arise in education, in public libraries and elsewhere. The text was written in Spring 2009, but with this proviso, it is up to date and comprehensive for those working in the UK.

For those not familiar with the earlier editions of his book, it is written as a series of questions and answers and it is aimed at those working in libraries and archives. In many instances I tend not to find “frequently asked questions” that helpful and prefer a general reference book, but in the case of Cornish, his questions are extremely well devised. On many times when I have turned to the fourth edition I find the exact question I was asking, with a succinct and helpful answer. I was pleased to see the format is therefore largely unchanged. It is divided into the same twelve sections including some introductory sections that explain copyright law basics. It has chapters considering all the major types of works: literary, dramatic and musical works, artistic works, films, video and DVDs, broadcasts, databases and electronic resources including computer programs and websites. There is also a chapter on licences and licensing schemes such as the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) Licences and the Educational Recording Agency Licence. There are also three appendices including a list of useful addresses, selected further reading and some example forms.

Each chapter on a specific type of material, for example the chapter on broadcasts, includes a definition of this format and then considers the following: authorship, ownership of copyright, whether the work can be lent or rented, publication right and the duration of copyright. It then goes on to consider fair dealing, educational copying, library and archive copying and other issues. The arrangement is useful although it does mean the details about a topic such as educational copying are dispersed throughout several chapters. In this case I relied on the index to help me out. My one criticism of the book is that I still find the use of section numbering rather than page numbering in the index to be slightly more complicated than necessary, but this is a very minor quibble. I also thought there was fairly minimal information about the activity that is currently occupying many UK higher education librarians, which is scanning under the CLA Licence.

Notable additions to the fifth edition include information about copyright issues and Web 2.0 technologies (pp. 164‐166) including MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr and Facebook. The book also discusses concepts such as Creative Commons and open access (p. 146) as well as virtual learning environment and podcasts. The book has generally been updated to take into account new developments and recent case law. A glance through the index reveals many new topics, so a thorough revision of the work has been undertaken. For those working in libraries who come up against tricky copyright issues, I cannot recommend Cornish's book more highly as a good all round reference work. I know I will be consulting it regularly and the format makes it convenient to keep close at hand. I have no doubt that librarians working in all sectors will find this book illuminating and it even has some useful anecdotes for dinner parties!