Monthly Archives: January 2018

Because Markets Fail: Libraries and the Public Domain

Intellectual property rights – copyrights included – are designed to create a market for ideas and expressions. Without them, the argument goes, there is no way

of earning money from a work or product, and so no incentive to create. The right to enjoy the material benefits of a work – if not copyright per se – is of course protected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

 

But what happens when traditional means of earning money – through selling books or licensing files – no longer work? For every book or song that continues to sell years after publication, there are thousands, if not more, which have been forgotten, lost in a back-catalogue (or, in the digital world, simply deleted).

 

What opportunities are there then for creators to be rediscovered, and for their work to inspire further innovation and creativity? How can we avoid a sub-optimal situation for both authors and readers – a market failure?

 

Just as copyright provides a response to the need to ensure that creators can earn a living from their work, the public domain delivers on the right of society as a whole to access culture, information and knowledge. It also places limits on the harm that can be done by market failures associated with long copyright terms (many would argue too long). It is open and available to all because we don’t know – and cannot predict – who is going to rediscover which work and when. But it is better to create an opportunity, than not at all.

 

Libraries play an essential role both in ensuring that we have a public domain, and in increasing the chance that it will be used.

 

First of all, the survival of works through the long wilderness years often depends on public interest collection and preservation policies. When a purely commercial operator would have cleared copies from the warehouses or servers, libraries collect and conserve works, for example through legal deposit schemes. They then invest time, resources and expertise into keeping documents readable and usable, for the benefit of researchers and readers now and in the future. Much of the public domain as we know it lives in (or originates) from a library.

 

Secondly, libraries organise – by cataloguing and referencing – works in the public domain, so that they can be found and used in future. They are the original search engines, and for works created before the digital age (and many created since), the efforts of librarians and archivists in ensuring that books and other materials are recorded properly is essential.

 

Finally, there is access. Libraries are also about ensuring that works and the information they contain is accessed and used. By welcoming students, researchers, writers, and the general public, they provide a space where people can discover and enjoy the public domain. The Internet has offered new possibilities. The work of organisations like Europeana show what is possible when you bring together the work of libraries in one continent, and invest in user friendly web portals. Digital libraries are appearing in various countries around the world, supporting access to and exchange of works, and helping prove the diversity of our past.

 

Clearly there are challenges. The explosion of digital content has not been accompanied by equally ambitious preservation efforts as yet, meaning that many works are at risk of disappearing for ever. On a more political level, the dream that big data techniques will somehow make it possible to ‘monetise’ the back catalogue could lead to challenges to the public domain. But these do not affect the underlining issue – that the public domain helps limit the market failures created by copyright terms, and that libraries in turn make the public domain meaningful.

Remembering and Forgetting: Finding the Right Balance

Freedom of access to information depends heavily on privacy. People will not feel comfortable in seeking and obtaining the information they need if they are under surveillance.

However, free access and privacy – both of which are human rights recognised in the 1948 Universal Declaration – can also enter into conflict, for example when information concerns an individual’s private life. Search engines, by making discoverable information that would otherwise have lain undiscovered, have both helped make the Internet what it is, and accentuated this tension.

Access, Expression and Privacy: IFLA’s Approach to the Right to be Forgotten

Navigating the conflict between the right of people both to access knowledge, and to remove that which unfairly prejudices them, represents an ongoing challenge for libraries, as well as for courts, governments, and private companies.

IFLA’s Statement on the Right to be Forgotten offers some background, and sets out our approach. It underlines the interest of library users in being able to access as complete a version of the historical record as possible. It also cites the rights of information producers, who risk in preventing legally published speech from being delisted (and so effectively disappear).

Yet it also acknowledges that some information can be ‘unfairly damaging to an individual’s reputation or security where it is untrue, where it is available illegitimately or illegally, where it is too personally sensitive or where it is prejudicially no longer relevant, among other possibilities’.

As with any potential tension between fundamental rights, there are few easy answers. In its statement, IFLA stressed the need for judgements to be made on a transparent, case-by-case basis. It rejected both blanket refusals, and blanket acceptance of requests for delisting. In a subsequent open letter, it also underlined that such judgements would inevitably reflect local cultural preferences that would not be shared elsewhere. To this end, IFLA wanted against universal application of decisions.

Affirm or Upend: the Choice before the European Court

Two cases currently before the Court of Justice of the European Union could, however, have serious implications for the way right to be forgotten decisions are taken, and applied.

A first concerns an appeal made by four individuals against the decision of the French data protection authority not to uphold their request to have information about them delisted. The information in question concerned criminal proceedings and political beliefs, with the claimants arguing that any story containing personal information should be removed from search results on request. Such a position risks doing major damage to the freedom of the press, as well as transparency and accountability in public life.

A second opposes the same French data protection authority and Google, with the former arguing that right to be forgotten decisions should be applied globally, not just in the country where they are made. This case, the subject of IFLA’s open letter, risks seeing national courts effectively deciding what Internet users can view in other countries, regardless of the approach judges might take elsewhere.

The Need to Defend Balance

If it rejects these two cases, the Court will reaffirm the importance of taking a sensitive and thought-through approach to balancing human rights. It will also do a favour to information users and producers, as well as their own colleagues around the world.

This is not to say that the current set up is ideal – governments and regulators have doubtless been too ready to leave the task of responding to right to be forgotten requests to private companies, and transparency could be improved further. However, we can only progress on this front if the importance of finding balance is defended.

New Year: New Opportunities for Libraries and Cultural Heritage

The past year has been filled with exciting events, inspiring meetings and interesting debates on the cultural heritage front. It was also the year IFLA published its first ever guide to its work in the field, highlighting key areas of our work, why we are involved, and how to find out more.

But as 2017 itself becomes part of our history, we’re looking ahead to the opportunities – and challenges – that 2018 will provide. We know that our institutions are essential partners in providing access to information and culture. But they also have a vital role in ensure that this information and cultural heritage is there for future generations.

This is not always easy to explain to policy-makers who are focused on short-term concerns. Over many years, we have engaged with governments and others to underline the value of the work that libraries are doing.

Our New Year’s resolution for 2018 is to continue this work, and ensure that policy makers understand this, and give libraries the recognition they deserve. In doing this, we look forward to working closely with UNESCO and other partner organisations.

Into the Crystal Ball: New Outputs in 2018

We’re looking forward to developments in exciting new areas of IFLA’s work. Our Digital Unification Working Group, established to build up a better idea of the potential for using digital technologies to bring together documentary heritage that has been scattered by history. Digital unification is a growing international trend and a relevant topic for especially National Libraries. We are looking forward to gathering evidence over the coming year.

Our Preservation and Conservation Centres will continue their essential work, both in carrying out preservation activities themselves, and in delivering training and support to others. Following a successful workshop in July 2017, the PAC Centre in Sri Lanka will lead work in developing metadata standards for manuscripts as well as developing understanding on preservation techniques.

And after a successful meeting on safeguarding heritage in Francophone Africa, we look forward to more activity across Africa on preservation work. We are looking forward to many more initiatives and activities –   together we are stronger!

WLIC 2018 – a Unique Opportunity

2017’s IFLA World Library and Information Congress, held in Wroclaw, Poland, set a high standard. Over 3500 librarians, information professionals and others working in the information field, participated in the more than 200 different sessions. Valuable discussions on topics as Born Digital Legal Deposit Policies and Practices, Safeguarding Our Heritage for the Future, The Agony of Long-term Access: Collection Building in the Digital Era, Best Practices in Moving Collections from the View of Preservation and Conservation, Documentary Heritage and Digitisation, and Born Digital Heritage took place, and brought together specialists from all over the world.

WLIC 2018 will take place 24-30 August in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and we are excited to join forces with likeminded from around the globe. There are some rich and relevant proposals for events, and we’re excited about the insights and ideas that will come out of this work.

 

These are just a few of the things we’ll be looking at in 2018 – follow our cultural heritage pages to keep up to speed! In the meanwhile, we want to thank you for the work of 2017, and are looking forward to the year to come.