Copyright in Cyberspace: Questions and Answers for Librarians

Citation

Calvert, P. (2003), "Copyright in Cyberspace: Questions and Answers for Librarians", Online Information Review, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 60-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520310462581

Copyright is not easy to understand, so perhaps that is why many information managers seem to throw up their hands and give up trying to interpret the law. This simply cannot be allowed to happen, because information managers, of all people, must have an understanding of how copyright law works, even if they are unable to explain its intricacies. Hoffman sets out to provide a guide to copyright for librarians in the changing world of electronic information. The first five chapters set the stall. There are introductory chapters on the history of copyright, and an overview of the legislation. The third chapter is a very useful guide to “fair use” and the exemptions made for libraries. As many librarians seem to explain away much copying as “fair use”, it will be good to have a simple guide to tell us whether we are right or wrong on this. Two other chapters cover Internet basics (as a preliminary to the meat of the book) and recent legislation.

The next five chapters explain online copyright law for librarians in the USA. Until I read the book I had not realised some of the implications of hyperlinks, frames and browsing. There is a crucial chapter on copyright for digital libraries (perhaps not quite enough for professionals actually working in that field). There are some specifics dealt with in later chapters, such as the librarian’s liability for content of Web sites accessed by clients, interlibrary loans, public performance on Internet audio and video, trademark law, using words and symbols on Web sites, and how to get permission to use copyrighted material.

The text fills the first 150 pages. For the rest, the author has included excerpts from relevant legislation and other useful resources – 15 sources in all. Of course, the law discussed here is US legislation, and Hoffman has not paid attention to other jurisdictions. Nevertheless, some of the material will still be useful to librarians outside the USA, even if only as a general guide to copyright law around the world. There is a brief index. Perhaps this book is rather expensive for the general LIS collection, but information professionals will need to purchase either this book or one very similar.