Countries should change their laws and policies to encourage digital preservation of copyrighted works, according to a report released today by the Library of Congress. It drafted the report with organizations in Australia, Britain, and the Netherlands.
The report, “International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation,” says digital works are ephemeral, and unless they’re preserved shortly after creation they’ll be lost to future generations. The report calls for preserving copyrighted works in accordance with international best practices, migrating works into different formats, and maintaining duplicate copies among preservation institutions and repositories to protect against catastrophic loss.
The U.S. recommendations in the report are similar to those described in “The Section 108 Study Group Report” issued in March. —Andrea L. Foster
