I'm currently writing something on the electronic legal deposit legislation
right now (and its implications for publishers) and would appreciate any
comments from publishers (or from others about what they see as the
implications for publishers). The URL inserted by Steve below has some
interesting comments, but it is not clear whose words they are: does anyone
know?
Any comments can be either on or off the record as is preferred. (And I hope
Stevan doesn't slap my wrist for a posting what he may feel is off topic
here!)
Thanks.
Richard Poynder
Freelance Journalist
www.richardpoynder.com
In this context there may be some interest in the announcement
on Friday October 31 that the UK Government passed the Legal
Deposit Act extending to digital publications. The actual Act is at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmbills/026/03026.1-6.html
and the British Library press release is at
http://www.bl.uk/cgi-bin/press.cgi?story=1382
It is also worth noting the comments of Anthony Watkinson, a publisher
with experience of these processes:
> It is probable that the statutory
> instruments next year will start with off-line but on-line will follow
> quite soon and (although web-site sampling is part of the picture) it
> is scholarly e-journals that are of main interest i.e. publications. To
> my mind e-only journals are the most important though the normative
> e-version of journals available in print also are diverging from print
> and thus become more important to preserve.
There are still some practical issues to resolve, not least because
the Government department involved only revealed the draft very
late in the day "to the fury and exasperation of the library and
publishing sectors", relating to omissions in earlier readings:
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:iFKXGxJB6NcJ:www.alpsp.org/news/LegDep15-6-03.pdf+uk+legal+deposit+act&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
But the thrust of the bill towards publications is clear.
Received on Wed Nov 12 2003 - 18:19:58 GMT