Legal Issues in the Libraries

2. We are living in a knowledge society. Knowledge empowers
people in their everyday lives and facilitates good governance
and the development of democratic societies. Knowing your legal
rights as a citizen, being well informed about a medical condition
or having access to the latest travel, weather or leisure
information enables people to take control, make informed
decisions and to exercise choice. It encourages innovation,
creativity and a competitive economy.
Libraries organize, collect and preserve all types of information,
knowledge, cultural and learning resources for the purposes of
making them available to library patrons and the general public
of today and tomorrow.
- EIFL Handbook on Copyright and Related Issues for
Libraries-

3. • Gifts and IRS
Gifts represent an important component of the collection-building activities of
libraries. Libraries should develop guidelines as to what gifts will be accepted and
what gifts will not be accepted into their collections, based on their collection
development policy. Libraries will want to state that they accept gift material to add to
their collections that meet the same standards or selection criteria used for materials
purchased for the collections. It is often easier to say what will not be accepted rather
than what will be accepted. For example, materials in poor physical condition,
material with out-of-date information or long runs of popular periodicals will not be
accepted.

4. *One of the IRS regulation relevant to the libraries has to do with the gifts and
donations to a library or not-for-profit information center. Any libraries, or its
parent institution ,that receives a gift-in-kind with an appraised value of $5,000 or
more must report the gift to the IRS.
*A second regulation forbids the receiving party to provide an estimated value for
gift-in-kind .

5. What is IRS?
The internal revenue service (IRS) is the revenue service of the united states
federal government. The government agency is a bureau of the department of the
treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the commissioner of internal
revenue. The IRS is responsible for collecting taxes and the administration of the
internal revenue code. It has also overseen various benefit programs, and
enforces portions of the affordable care act.
the first income tax was assessed in 1862 to raise funds for the american civil war,
with a rate of 3%. Today the IRS collects over $2.4 trillion each tax year. It
processes around 234 million tax returns annually.

6. What is inventory?
Inventory is:
* a standard business procedure
* a survey of goods and materials in stock
In a library this primarily involves checking the library collection on the shelves
against the catalogue records, but it could also involve an equipment and
supplies inventory.
What is Inventory Control?
Inventory control systems are the systems employed in order to insure that
inventories are kept at the minimum level consistent with maintaining continuity
of supply to meet the needs of external customers and users within the business.

7. Why do libraries conduct inventories?
1. To ensure the accuracy of their catalogue records
2. To estimate loss rates and costs in order to evaluate the success of current
security systems and procedures, and if necessary, to make a business case for a
new security system
3. To replace or withdraw all missing items and to indicate such information on
the catalogue record by withdrawing or flagging the record to alert the patron
4. To evaluate the condition of materials on the shelves
5. To evaluate the quality of the cataloguing record
6. To analyze a collection's strengths and weaknesses

8. Copyrights Laws and Libraries
Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the
creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. This
is usually only for a limited time. The exclusive rights are not absolute but
limited by limitations and exceptions to copyright law, including fair use.
The term copyright originated from the law’s first purpose, which was to
protect against unauthorized printing and selling of a work.

9. *PENALTIES OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
By reproducing, republishing or redistributing the work of a copyright holder
without permission, you may be violating or infringing on his or her rights under
the copyright act. If the copyright holder has registered the work with the U.S.
Copyright office prior to the infringement, the copyright holder may sue for
compensation. Court-ordered compensation may include damages such as lost
profits from the infringing activity or statutory damages ranging from $250 to
$150,000, plus attorneys' fees, for each infringing copy.
You may also be criminally liable if you willfully copy a work for profit or financial
gain, or if the copied work has a value of more than $1,000. In these cases,
penalties can include a one-year jail sentence plus fines. If the value is more than
$2,500, you may be sentenced to five years in jail plus fines. Criminal penalties
generally apply to large-scale commercial piracy.

10. "International" copyright
There is no such thing as an "international" copyright that automatically protects a
work throughout the world. However, the most widely-adopted copyright treaty, the
Berne convention, states that once a work is protected in one of the convention
member countries, it is protected by copyright in all of them. As of mid-2004, 156
countries, including the U.S., Belong to the Berne convention. The Berne Convention
further states that the scope and limitations of any copyright are based upon the
laws of the country where the misuse of the copyright-protected work takes place
(rather than the country where the work originated).

11. LIBRARIES AND LAWS
How is copyright an issue in collection development? There are at least five
significant areas where the law and library intersect:
1. fair use
2. photocopying/ scanning
3. interlibrary loan
4. performance
5. out-of-print status

12. FAIR USE
Fair use is a legal doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material
without acquiring permission from the rights holders. While often thought of as
an affirmative defense.
The copyright act at 17 U.S.C. § 108 and the code of federal regulations at 37
C.F.R. § 201.14 provide protections for libraries with regard to copying for
library patrons.

13. Library Copying After 75 Years
In 1998, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act extended
the period of copyright protection for an additional 20 years. As
part of the Act, Congress provided that, during the last 20 years of
any term of copyright of a published work, a library or archives
may reproduce a copy of the work for purposes of preservation,
scholarship, or research provided that the work was not being
distributed commercially, the work cannot be obtained at a
reasonable price, or the copyright owner or its agent provides
notice that either of the above conditions applies.

14. DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT (DMCA)
Digital millennium copyright act (DMCA) is a united states copyright law that implements
two 1996 treaties of the world intellectual property organization (WIPO). It criminalizes
production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent
measures (commonly known as digital rights management or DRM) that control access to
copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control,
whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA
heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the internet, passed on October 12,
1998, by a unanimous vote in the united states senate and signed into law by president
bill clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended title 17 of the united states code to
extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of online
services for copyright infringement by their users.

15. DMCA AND TECHNOLOGY ISSUES
ENFORCEMENT
Copyright holders are quick to enforce their rights. In Singapore, criminal offences under
copyright law include the following:
manufacture of infringing copies for sale;
sale of infringing copies;
possession or importation of infringing copies for the purposes of sale, hire, or
distribution for trade or for any other purpose to an extent that will affect the copyright
owner prejudicially;
distribution of infringing copies for trade or for any other purposes to such an extent as to
affect the copyright owner prejudicially.

16. CONTRACTUAL COMPLIANCE
The ccc (copyright clearance center) is a not for profit service designed for right
holders ,libraries and others users of copyrighted material by providing a central
source from which to secure necessary permissions and to pay the required fee.
It is a licensing system :ccc does not copy documents but function as a
clearinghouse for both print and online content.
DISAPPEARANCE OF MATERIALS

17. LICENSES AND CONTRACTS
What is the difference between a contract and a license?
A contract is a voluntary, deliberate and legally binding agreement between two or more
competent parties…..Each party to a contract acquires rights and duties relative to the
duties and rights of other parties.
A license on the other hand means a revocable written or implied agreement by an
authority or proprietor not to assert his or her right period and under specified to prevent
another party from engaging in certain activity that is normally forbidden.

18. THE ART OF NEGOTIATION
Negotiation is about resolving a matter in such a way that all parties involved achieved
some gain rather than all or nothing.