Re: Legal Deposit Libraries Act

["adam hodgkin" <adam.hodgkin@gmail.com>]

Yep -- its a UK thing. The six libraries that get, as of right, 
single copies of all copyright books published in the UK are the 
national libraries (British Library, Wales, Scotland and Ireland 
-- this act was framed when all of Ireland was still part of 
Britain -- and Oxford and Cambridge University Libraries). They 
mostly dont exercise their rights to the full.

Incidentally, Nigel Newton's comment is somewhat disingenuous 
because the libraries are very scrupulous about NOT using their 
'legal deposit' copies for commercial or quasi-commercial 
purposes. I believe that the BL runs its document delivery 
service by purchasing original copies (not legal deposit copies) 
for the purpose of making one-at-a-time copies and the Bodleian, 
Oxford's library, which is participating in the Google library 
scheme has explicitly ruled out using in-copyright books in the 
Google collaboration.

It would be good to read something from a publisher who instead 
of complaining about Google had a compelling vision of how 
literature and published works will be available and accessible 
through the web. Newton's sketch in which each publisher runs 
their own web service sounds like a disaster in the making (which 
fortunately, not least for the publishers, means that it will not 
happen)

Adam