[Prev Page] [Next Page ] [Contents]
The downloading or copying of electronically stored material is a particularly difficult and sensitive area for publishers and users, although it is in the interest of both parties to seek arrangements that are not totally restrictive. An agreement defining the amount of material that can be copied, and the uses that may be made of copied material would be most valuable. The definitions of downloading and copying need to be clarified, preferably by agreement between publishers and users, because in an electronic context, it is not possible to read or use a document without in the strict sense copying it to a screen or a printer, just as it is not possible to send a fax of a document without momentarily creating an electronic copy. The term electrocopying also needs clarification, as it is used by the Library Association Joint Consultative Council (LA/JCC) and others to mean the copying of text and graphics into an electronic format regardless of the original format (therefore including copying from one electronic format into the same format or another), but used by the Publishers Association to mean "the process of using a scanner...to scan printed materials and to store the text in either character-coded or image form". It is obviously desirable that this confusion should be dispelled.
[Prev Page] [Next Page ] [Contents]
[UKOLN Home Page] [Papers and Reports] [British Library Papers and Reports ]