On 12 February the Library Association Copyright Alliance (LACA) hosted a meeting at LAHQ to provide librarians and information officers with an opportunity to question officials from the Patent Office about the main issues of the copyright Directive (the Patent Office being responsible for its implementation in domestic law).

The main points that arose were:

• Implementation of the Directive is to be completed before 22 December 2002.
  
  
• Article 5(3)(a) says that copying for non-commercial purposes is acceptable. This means that the current exception of fair dealing will be limited after 22 December 2002 to copying for research and private study only as long as it is for a non-commercial purpose. The Patent Office is unwilling to give a definition of 'non-commercial purposes', stating that only the European Court of Justice has the authority to provide one.
  
  
• Librarians will continue to be able to copy for another person where that person signs a declaration form stating that the copying is for non-commercial purposes.
  
  
• In situations where copying is required for commercial purposes a licence will be required such as is required currently by the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) or the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA). However some material does not come under either of these agencies at the moment and so it seems it will be necessary to set up a new body to issue licences and/or collect royalty fees. A fee would be made for each item reproduced if a licence is not held from the appropriate agency.
  
  
• If a new licensing body is set up this will have implications for librarians who will have to administer the system of organising licences, collecting fees, and preserving declaration forms signed for copying for non-commercial purposes.
  
  
• It is important to remember that it is the purpose that must be non-commercial in order to be able to copy material under the exception, regardless of whether the organisation that requires the copying is commercial or non-commercial. Bear in mind that some copying that is currently done will not be possible under the new Directive.

In summary, copying can either be undertaken

1) by means of the exception of copying for non-commercial purposes, or

2) under licence of the NLA/CLA/new licensing agency, or

3) by paying a fee for each item reproduced if a licence is not held for commercial copying, or

4) for judicial proceedings as under current law.

As things stand, the Patent Office is looking to implement the Directive more or less as above but it is aware that it might well have to modify the proposals and nothing has been set in stone yet. It is still very much involved with ironing out possible difficulties, and welcomes comments and feedback on these copyright issues from the people it will affect most. A formal public consultation will be held in April 2002.

For further information see:

Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC:
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2001/l_167/l_16720010622en00100019.pdf

Copyright section of the Patent Office website:
http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/index.htm

LACA website:
http://www.la-hq.org.uk/groups/laca/laca.html