The Legal and Regulatory Environment for Electronic Information: An Infonortics In‐depth Briefing (3rd ed.)

David Bawden (Department of Information Science, City University, London)

Library Management

ISSN: 0143-5124

Article publication date: 1 September 1999

74

Keywords

Citation

Bawden, D. (1999), "The Legal and Regulatory Environment for Electronic Information: An Infonortics In‐depth Briefing (3rd ed.)", Library Management, Vol. 20 No. 6, pp. 46-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/lm.1999.20.6.46.1

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited


Legal and regulatory issues, particularly copyright in all its forms, have been an increasingly pressing concern on library managers over the years. With the advent of the “electronic” or “virtual” library, and with the assumption that every library will have access to material in digital form, these issues take on a new level of complexity, and of significance. Authoritative guides to the topic are few, readable ones fewer. This book is among the most valuable of such resources. First published in 1992, with a second edition in 1995, it has become known as a source of relevant, detailed and accurate information on the complex legal issues, particularly copyright, which affect librarians, and other information specialists, in dealing with electronic information.

“Text” is, however, something of a misnomer. This is described, accurately enough, as a “briefing”. Its style is direct and informal, and combines the carefully presented assertion with the sometimes flippant exemplification; reading a chapter of the book is very reminiscent of listening to one of Oppenheim′s enthusiastically‐presented lectures. Thus:

“Fair dealing” is a defence against an infringement action, and you have to argue your case as defendant in a court trying to prove that the copying was “fair” and was for one of the permitted purposes. In contrast, where librarians and information scientists are given special treatment, the law makes it clear they cannot be sued. Full stop.

And

Moral rights, which are embodied in the law of many countries, include the right to be identified as the author (except in the case of employee‐created material) and the right to object to your name being associated with someone else′s work. Thus, for example, if Infonortics were to publish a book by Jeffery Archer, but were to claim it was written by Charles Oppenheim, I could object and say “Oh no, that was not written by me”.

This style is likely to appeal more to its intended audience than the kind of books which Oppenheim denotes as “written by lawyers for lawyers dry and unreadable”.

As in previous editions of this book, there is a very broad treatment of intellectual property, in its various manifestations, as it relates to digital material. Naturally, much of the discussion deals with copyright: complex enough for the non‐specialist, even in the older and simpler world of print, this gains a new dimension of complexity in an electronic environment. Other topics given attention include data protection, legal liability, and libel and slander. The selection is very broad, and the discussions touch on freedom of information, confidentiality of searches, VAT and other tax liability, pornography, and legal deposit.

New material largely centres on the Internet, including such aspects as spamming, the legal liability of service providers, possible legal problems of linking to other sites, and issues around domain names. There is also much new material on European Union law, actual and proposed, on databases and copyright, and on the increasingly important issue of site licences.

The author tells us that the single message he would wish to come from this briefing is that legislators do not, and probably never will, understand the information business. It is therefore essential for as many people as possible, from all sectors of that business, to lobby, educate and persuade for a sensible legal framework. It follows that, in order to do this, they must be well informed as to the issues. This book is a valuable tool in achieving this goal.

Oppenheim claims that “there are few worthwhile books in this area”. In most cases, such a claim from an author would be simple arrogance; in this case, it is not much of an exaggeration, if it is one at all. Perhaps this sets an initial concern at a price of 55 for a paper‐backed book of moderate length into perspective.

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