Works are creative pieces that express human ideologies and emotions, and copyright is the monopolistic and exclusive right of the author. When someone tries to use the works of others, he or she should get permission from their authors. However, the ...
Works are creative pieces that express human ideologies and emotions, and copyright is the monopolistic and exclusive right of the author. When someone tries to use the works of others, he or she should get permission from their authors. However, the use of works without getting such permission is allowed to certain degree if it is necessary for reporting, criticism, education, and research according to Article 35-3, Clause 1 of Korean Copyright Law.
The aims of Copyright Law is to bring social benefits through the development of culture and industry as well as protect the authors and users. The most important place where the copyright law brings benefits to culture and industry is libraries, which has been the very venue for academic and cultural development throughout all ages and countries. However, not all materials at libraries can be freely used without the permission of the authors, which means that their use should be restricted within the scope of doing no damage to the profits of the authors.
The materials of libraries can be divided into analog- and digital-type copyrighted works. This paper reviews on those two types of copyright at the library.
Fair use is categorized into U.S.-style fair use and U.K.-style fair dealing. Korea Copyright Law adopted the type of the former because the latter has a very narrow scope, and protects the profits of authors to a considerable degree compared with the former. Since the awareness of Korean Copyright Law is lower than in Europeans', the introduction of too strict fair dealing regulations can face huge side effects and resistance.
Of the copyright limitation reasons related to the fair use of copyrighted works at libraries, reproduction at libraries or others, which is prescribed in Article 31, Clause 1 of Copyright Law, is controversial. Such issues, however, can all be resolved within the scope of fair use. There are no clearly set criteria for the followings in the use of copyrighted works at libraries: First, the criteria for a third of a work for reproduction at libraries. Second, the criteria for works for in-house preservation. And finally, the criteria for copyrighted works that are hard to get. But those three issues can be resolved within the scope of fair use.
And I think that reproduction for individuals with visual or hearing impairments meets the requirements of fair use prescribed in Article 35-3 of Copyright Law to a satisfying degree and thus can be resolved within the scope of the article.
Of the various ways for libraries to collect materials, presentation of a specimen copy is the most effective and efficient. Allowing for the reproduction of digitalized publications as books in braille or in audio books for individuals with visual or hearing impairments in the process of presenting their specimen copies to libraries will be considerably helpful for the increased welfare of the handicapped and lower the possibility of copyright infringement.
Finally, This Paper proposed public lending right and copyright registration system to deal with fair use at libraries. The introduction of a copyright registration system will help to reduce efforts to trace authors and engage in discussions with them quickly when libraries try to digitalize works whose copyright has not been registered.
Information technology keeps evolving, and the volume of copyrighted works is increasing exponentially. In that situation, libraries also keep changing anew. Everyone frequently uses a library with increasing interest in copyright and more and diverse libraries being built, but they do not have good knowledge about how Copyright Law is applied to works at libraries. It is thus required to continuously change, enact, and revise Copyright Law, Library Law, and other laws in this new age.