No deal will leave access to Orphan Works in the balance
ACCESS to digital archives held at the British Library face an uncertain future if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal. The BL has written to researchers to warn them
that the EU-wide Orphan Works ruling will no longer apply in the UK if there is a no-deal Brexit. That means any orphan works accessed digitally will not be covered by the copyright exemption. Orphan Works are those where the author or originator cannot be identified or located in order to obtain consent to use works that are still under copyright protection.
The news emerged after a researcher was told
that access to the digital archive for Spare Rib, the feminist magazine that was printed between 1972 and 1993, would be restricted after Brexit if there is a no deal. Polly Russell, curator for contemporary politics and public life, told a re- searcher that: “If the UK leaves the EU without a deal on 29 March, the library will no longer be able to use the EU copyright exception, which currently applies to a substantial proportion of the archive under the EU orphan works directive.”
A number of archives are likely to be affected at the British Library, but Spare Rib has one of the highest number of articles that are covered by the Orphan Works legislation. Because of the high proportion of orphan works in the archive, the BL has taken the decision to suspend access to it in the event of no deal being reached. Writing in a blog for the BL, Polly said that while they had obtained permission from many contributors to the magazine, more than half of the archive is covered by the Orphan Works ruling. She added: “Should the UK exit the EU without a withdrawal agreement, howev- er, we have been advised by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) that this legal exception will no longer apply. In those circumstances, the Library would have to suspend access to the archive or be in breach of copyright. “The remainder of the archive, for which permis-
sions have been obtained, would not form a sufficiently coherent resource to be useful to researchers, so we would have to close the resource entirely.” And although the archive will not be available on- line, the British Library does include a curated area of its website dedicated to the Spare Rib magazine, which will remain accessible whatever the outcome of Brexit negotiations. The physical collection will be unaffected by the ruling, but researchers would find it much more difficult to access articles, which are kept at the BL’s London headquarters. At the time of going to press, it was still not clear whether a deal would be forthcoming before the intended 29 March deadline for the UK to withdraw from the EU. In the event of an extended deadline, then the Orphan Works ruling would continue to be provide copyright protection for digital archives.
March 2019 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 13
News
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