How digital locks and the laws that govern them frustrate preservation, research and access to knowledge
See the recording here
When?
- Date: 26 November, 2024
- Time: 10:00-11:30 CET / 09:00-10:30 GMT
What?
This webinar, from one of the co-authors of a ground-breaking three-part report from University of Glasgow and KR21 on technological protection measures (TPMs) will outline the legal and technical barriers that knowledge institutions face when preserving digital content.
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The Webinar
While cultural heritage institutions are provided the automatic right by copyright law to preserve analogue works, when digital works are protected by technological protection measures, European laws have created a convoluted, time-consuming and expensive legal process for circumvention.
Accompanying the launch of three ground-breaking reports on TPMs from the CREATE Centre, University of Glasgow, one of the co-authors, will present an overview of some of the key findings of their research.
A number of key themes that emerge from the reports include:
- The serious barrier to both research and long-term access to culture that TPMs and the particular status afforded them by copyright law presents;
- Digital materials that depend on TPM-protected formats and devices can become permanently inaccessible to research and preservation when rightsholders or TPM manufacturers can no longer be located.
- Delays to preservation not only create economic costs for CHIs and preservation communities more broadly, but also negatively impact on research and access to culture.
- Publishers’ responses to request for access blocked by TPMs vary greatly. In 33% of cases where a researcher requested removal of TPMs by a publisher, the request was declined or no response at all was received. The amount of time from a library request from a library to a publisher responding varied widely, with 11.3% of requests settled in under 2 days, 25.7% of requests taking up to a week, 31.7% of requests taking up to a month and 20% of requests taking over 1 month to resolve if at all.
- 72% of researchers reported limits on access presented by TPMs for materials they had access to via their institution.
In terms of recommendations found in the report these include:
- EU policymakers remove the requirement for cultural heritage institutions to seek access from rightsholders for circumvention of TPMs when engaging in preservation.
- National lawmakers exert pressure to ensure that contemporary TPMs applied to new works are removable for purposes of future preservation.
- EU Member States should impose clearer and shorter timelines (72 hours) in relation to rightsholders’ obligation to provide the means of accessing TPM-protected works; and
- Drawing upon the New Zealand and Singaporean approaches, EU Member States should, as furtherance of their “appropriate measures”, empower research organisations and institutions (such as libraries) to facilitate circumvention of TPMs for lawful purposes on behalf of users and researchers.
Why You Should Attend
The ground-breaking study on the legal and technological barriers erected by TPMs shines a particular light on the impact this has on libraries, other knowledge institutions and researchers. While Article 7 of the CDSM Directive is a positive development relating to circumvention of TPMs, it evidently falls short of creating a workable solution. The webinar will present findings from both surveys and desk-based research and make recommendations how the EU as well as European governments should amend copyright law to ensure future generations will have accessible digital history.
Programme
Presentation followed by a Q&A session.
Speaker:
- Kristofer Erickson –Professor of Social Data Science and Deputy Director for CREATE at the University of Glasgow
29 October 2024
