The British Library, UK, recently conducted a survey on researchers' attitudes and needs in the digital age. Of the respondents, 93 percent stated that access to online research material should be the same as for books.
A majority of the survey participants agreed that, in the age of the Internet, anyone involved in non-commercial research should be allowed to copy parts of electronically published works. These include online articles, news broadcasts, film or sound recordings. The British Library conducted the research because it felt the balance in copyright is being undermined in the digital era.
Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they should be able to use exceptions and fair dealing in the digital age. Fair dealing is the 'right' to make a copy from an in-copyright work without permission from, or remuneration to, the rights holder for non-commercial research, private study, criticism, review and news reporting. Sixty-eight percent of the survey respondents are opposed to having different fair dealing laws for material in paper or electronic format.
The British Library will present these points, on behalf of researchers, to the UK Intellectual Property Office in the current consultation on copyright exceptions.
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