FOBID, the organisation that represents Dutch libraries, archives and museums, recently reached an agreement with VOI©E, which represents right holders, on the digitisation and accessibility of the latter's heritage collections. The agreement was reached within the Digiti©E Committee (Digitisation of Cultural Heritage) that was set up when a Declaration of Intent was signed at the opening of Amsterdam World Book Capital in April 2008. It is seen as a major breakthrough in the discussion regarding the copyright aspects of digitising collections held by libraries and archives.
The agreement is being projected as the first such in the world, between libraries and right holders. There is concern in many other countries too regarding how to deal with the rights of right holders who cannot be traced, i.e. the holders of rights in "orphan works". If the recent Dutch arrangement is imitated in other European countries, it is expected to have an enormous effect on the availability of recent works in the "Europeana" digital library.
The essence of the agreement is that the libraries that are represented receive permission, on certain conditions, from virtually all right holders to digitise their collections and make them publically available on their own premises. The works concerned must be part of the Dutch cultural heritage and no longer commercially available, and must be used for teaching or research purposes. The libraries do not need to pay the right holders as long as the works are only made available on their own premises.
Separate consent is required, however, if the digitised works are made more widely available, for example by means of remote access or via the Internet. In that case, an agreed payment must be made; agreements in principle can be made regarding payment by the Digiti©E committee. Even then, the library will not need to go in search of the right holders because this will be done by collecting societies such as Lira and Pictoright.
The organisations representing right holders will shortly be setting up a registration centre for digitisation where libraries and archives can register proposed projects and get in touch with right holders regarding how they should be implemented.
Individual right holders can still object to their work being digitised and made accessible. In that case, the libraries and archives concerned are required to cease making the works accessible; in practice, very few titleholders are actually seen to object.
