Copyright literacy as one of the tenets of user instruction in the digital domain has been passive in Indian Libraries. There have been sporadic efforts on the part of libraries amidst lack of policies or fair use and scholarly communication committees at institution level to address the issues relating to copyright. The important factor is the emergence of license agreements as contracts trumping the copyright laws and digital communication involving the copyrighted content. The chapter discusses the complex terrain of copyright literacy involving cross-jurisdictional copyright laws for drafting a user instruction guideline by analysing framework to address the issues often encountered by users of the content at IIMB. This case study assumes importance as library acquires content which is heterogeneous not only in format but also the terms of use and usage rights The objective of this effort is to encourage ethical use of copyright protected and licensed content in teaching, research, and learning and also creating awareness about the rights of content creators.
TopIntroduction
The proliferation of online copyrighted content and the power of technology that empowers the users to reproduce and create new content opens up new challenges of ethical use and copyright compliance. Without any human intervention, the users are now able to browse, download, save, print or share content from databases and full-text e-journals with Internet access. Libraries are inextricably intertwined with copyright in their most basic activities. Using crawlers and spiders, the entire content of a resource is easily downloadable within minutes, file sharing sites are widely being used, and DRMs are easily circumvented. Access to the Internet gives unprecedented ability to browse, download, clip any content and create a digital rendition for distribution through various channels of social media, and other sharing sites, either for profit or fun or under an assumed name or complete anonymity. The content might be copyrighted, and all such reproduction may also occur without obtaining permissions.
Digitality has eased transactions. The audience participation in creativity and the consequent blurring of the line between authors and their recipients is far from unprecedented. The new technologies of content creation and dissemination posed both aesthetic and legal issues. (Baldwin, 2014)
As Copyright laws are unable to keep pace with latest technologies, content providers rigorously insist for licensing the digital content through contracts to enforce unauthorized access and use of information, which in some instances override the application of copyright laws. Digital content includes disparate terms and conditions of access and reproduction in addition to provisions of copyright laws. Hence, it becomes all the more complex to communicate to the user community. Technology enabled restrictions are also difficult to enforce, with one shot orientation sessions. Ebooks are published in many formats and are not device neutral. Those purchased from aggregators, need specific software to read and are DRM enabled. Limitations are enforced on offline downloads, printing and saving it as PDFs. Terms of use differ in Bibliographic and Non-bibliographic databases.
These are also documented rich and copyright laden enterprises. From the collection, retrieval, preservation, and use of information, every activity is dictated by copyright law as libraries as intermediaries facilitate exchanges between information creators and information consumers. Copyright literacy is inevitable in an electronic environment as it is much easier to replicate.