Search results

The purpose of this study is to explain how and why firms configure copyright practices when confronted with state-sanctioned laws and informal customs projected by local ethnic or religious communities.

A multi-case inductive study of four film-producing organizations within the Nigerian film industry (i.e. Nollywood) was conducted. Specifically considered were firms that started their operations around the same time with similar founding conditions, experiences, resources and technical competencies. Field observations and multiple rounds of in-depth interviews were conducted to achieve the research objectives.

The study found that firms adopted dominant or hybrid configurations when interacting with informality and formality. Dominant configurations represent the exclusive adoption of informal copyright practices while hybrid configurations refer to the blended use of informal and formal copyright practices. The second set of findings revealed that each firm’s strategic intent affected the type of interactional configuration that unfolded in the firm. Specifically, firms with social intents tended to adopt dominant configurations, whereas firms with socio-economic intents tended to adopt hybrid configurations.

The study implies that firms may profit from strategically focusing on when and in what circumstances to adopt informality. Strategic intents that blend social and economic rationales may secure more positive interactive outcomes from internal and external stakeholders promoting formality and informality.

This study highlights the fact that firms embedded in local religious and ethnic communities use organizational practices to solve social and institutional problems of their members. The copyright practices of these organizations encourage apprenticeship, youth empowerment and entrepreneurship in Nigeria.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that goes beyond macro-level analysis to investigate the interactional dynamics between formality and informality at the firm, community, and state levels. The study is also first of its kind to use copyright practices as an analytical lens to explore the interaction between informality and formality.

This paper considers whether copyright has a future in an electronic environment. A number of issues face copyright owners in the networked environment, most of them caused by the ease with which materials can be copied. Some relevant examples of legal cases are considered. Some responses to the stresses, in terms of both attitudes and legislation, such as the EU Database Directive and the EU Draft Directive on Copyright, are considered. It is concluded that copyright is unlikely to survive in its present form, and that attempts to strengthen it by means of increasing owner rights could be counterproductive. Innovative thinking and ideas are necessary, together with increased owner‐user co‐operation, if copyright is to survive.

Librarians and information professionals increasingly need to deal with copyright issues in their work, however evidence suggests that they can lack confidence and often refer queries to a dedicated copyright specialist. The purpose of this paper is to explore the professional experiences of copyright of a group of academic librarians in the UK, with a view to devising appropriate copyright education strategies.

The research was conducted using phenomenography, which is a qualitative approach from education. Data were collected though group interviews to explore the variation of experience. Four categories of description were devised which are placed in an outcome space.

There were four qualitatively distinct ways that librarians experience copyright in their professional lives, including viewing it as a problem, as complicated, as a known entity and as an opportunity. The variations in experience relate to a variety of factors such as the librarians’ role, ideology, level of experience, context and with whom they might be dealing.

This is the first study of this nature, building on quantitative findings from a multinational survey. It concludes that librarians need to be taught about copyright in a way that acknowledges and addresses the challenges so that they can view it as empowering and as part of wider information literacy initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain a snapshot of attitudes and comprehension of the University of Greenwich (UoG) academics towards copyright and the impact of same on their teaching, complementing this with a survey of the experience of academic librarians (ALs) throughout the UK when dealing with faculty and copyright.

Two questionnaires were created and circulated to capture information from two sampled groups: the UoG academic staff and UK-wide ALs. A total of 55 responses were received to the questionnaire distributed to the former, and 83 responses were received to the questionnaire distributed to the latter.

The majority of the UoG academics believed they possessed a fair, or better than fair, understanding of copyright, with numerous respondents self-taught on the subject. Nevertheless, a significant number thought they might have broken copyright when teaching, while also revealing the belief that copyright was a limitation on their teaching. The AL survey suggested an average comprehension of copyright among academics, while noting that some of the latter felt a degree of antipathy towards copyright.

Although focused on a single institution, this study implies that copyright instruction for academic staff needs to be substantially improved, and it suggests the need for greater visibility of training programmes.

In introducing e-reserves as an added service of the De La Salle University (DLSU) libraries, the purpose of this paper is to identify the best practices of handling e-reserves and its legal implications as one of the factors that might affect the introduction, development and implementation of such service.

Four universities were considered based from the 2013 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) university rankings in Asia. Only one academic library was maintaining an e-reserve system. It was consulted to know more about their e-reserve practices.

The paper recommends to prepare the relevant e-reserve guidelines before it fully operates. Moreover, the Libraries should also collaborate with the office handling learning management systems so as to decide on how to manage the e-reserves. A needs assessment survey for faculty members is also being prepared so as to solicit responses from the teaching faculty if e-reserves is possible for DLSU to be established.

The paper attempts to document the existing e-reserve system in Philippine academic libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to a number of initiatives in train at European and international level to promote the value of public investments in digital information from different perspective.

Major developments in three key areas are described and assessed in terms of their potential impact on libraries in the digital era.

Significant progress is being made in opening up digital information for wider use but major barriers and constraints remain to be addressed.

The paper brings together inter‐related perspectives, e.g. those of public and private sector users, which are not always seen as part of the same picture. It is of interest to a wide range of stakeholders in the information society and the knowledge economy.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the legal and institutional frameworks for, and the challenges to the payment of the reprographic fees in Ghana.

A qualitative research approach was employed to address the objectives of the study. This involved focus group discussion sessions with twelve purposively sampled postgraduate students (six each from the private and public institutions) and the five Technical Committee members of CopyGhana; and qualitative interview sessions with the head librarians of four academic universities (two private and two public).

This study shows that CopyGhana derives its existence from Copyright Act 2005, (Act 690) section 49, and Copyright Regulations (L.I. 1962) 2010, sub-regulation 18. Copyright Regulations (L.I. 1962), 2010, sub-regulation 18 mandates CopyGhana to identify all the outfits that engage in photocopying for immediate licensing, and to protect the economic rights of foreign rightsholders within the jurisdiction of Ghana. Though students and library staff generally agree to the payment of the reprographic fees (the students however want to see it legally insulated against possible future arbitrary increases), the position of university authorities possesses a big challenge to its implementation.

The paper evaluated the legal and institutional frameworks for the payment of the reprographic fees, and the challenges in its implementation, and proposes that CopyGhana may have to activate its legal right to sue in order to overcome the challenges posed by university authorities, as is being done in other jurisdictions.