Intellectual Property Challenges in Digital Library Environments

Introduction

Intellectual property refers to creative products and the rights accorded to the owners of these products relating to their access and use. The rights given to the owners of creative works are referred to as intellectual property rights. These rights are protected by intellectual property laws such as the patent and copyright laws. For example, a work protected by copyright gives the owner exclusive rights to reproduction, public performance, broadcasting, translation and adaptation of the work. Intellectual property strives to strike a balance between private and public interests. It achieves this by giving the creators control over their works for a specified period of time (for example, fifty years after the life of the author) but gives some leeway for the public to explore the work for the benefit of humanity. The advances in technology, and especially digital technology, have posed a number of challenges in managing intellectual property. Libraries, and particularly digital libraries, are in a dilemma on how best to observe intellectual property rights and achieve their mandate of providing access to information.

Digital libraries consist of digital contents, which are either born digital or have been converted to a digital format. The nature of digital technology makes it easier for users to infringe intellectual property rights such as copyright because of the ease of downloading, copying, sharing and modifying a digital object. Critically, measures instituted to protect intellectual property rights in digital libraries go against the library philosophy of providing universal access to information. Therefore, digital librarians are currently exploring strategies to fulfil their mandate without violating intellectual property rights. This chapter contributes to the ongoing discourse on the subject.