Copyright committee sessions at 1998 conference in San Sebastian

Monday June 22, 09:30 - 11:00

Session 1: The evolution and harmonisation of copyright national legislations

  • The new Canadian copyright law
    Timothy Maloney (National Library of Canada, Ottawa)
  • Neue Entwicklung im Urheberrecht in Deutschland
    Joachim Jaenecke (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Berlin)
  • La loi de la propriété intellectuelle en Espagne et son adaptation à la norme européenne
    Nieves Iglesias Martinez (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid)

Presented by the Copyright Committee.
Chair: Anne Le Lay (Bibliothèque du CNR, Boulogne-Billancourt).

Wednesnay June 24, 09:30 - 11:00

Session 2

Working meeting.

Session report

The first session was an open session whose general topic was "The evolution and harmonisation of copyright national legislations". We had three speakers : Dr. Joachim Jaenecke (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin), Nieves Iglesias Martinez (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid) and Timothy Maloney (National Library of Canada). They all presented first the historical background of their own country and then, the recent developments and new laws, especially in copying, reinforcing neighbouring rights and taking into account newer technologies.

In Germany, the basic law of 1965 has changed some articles in 1990 and 1997 because of the reunification of both parts of Germany and because of the European Community directives.

Spain preferred to substitute the primary laws (from 1847 to 1992) by a new one in 1996, after important political changes and the entry of Spain into the European Community to be in conformity with its directives.

On the other hand, Canada seems to be different from Europe for the basic law in 1924 was based largely on the British copyright law of 1911. The evolution of law, planed in three phases since 1988 shows how Canada is just between two conceptions of law: Canadian Fair Dealing is rather closed to American Fair Use but the enforcement of moral rights makes Canada closer to Europe. In fact, it reflects the bilingual nature of Canada, between «Copyright» and «Droit d'Auteur».

The second session was a working meeting group where we decided first to strengthen communication about copyright through the IAML Web-site.

Secondly, we would like to establish a written working document on copyright to help the daily life of librarians. It could be a list of very concrete daily situations and problems around law topics; for each problem, several categories would be indicated for as many countries as possible the law, the interpretation of law, the private contracts, practice and at the end, any possible solution.

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