LEGAL ISSUESBY : VANESSA KAYE TORREMOCHA

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-

• Gifts and IRSGifts 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 For example, materials in poor physical condition, material with out-of-date information or long runs of popular periodicals will not be accepted.

*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 .

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.

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.

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

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.

*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.

"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).

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 use2. photocopying/ scanning 3. interlibrary loan4. performance 5. out-of-print status

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.

Library Copying After 75 YearsIn 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. 

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.

DMCA AND TECHNOLOGY ISSUES

ENFORCEMENTCopyright 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.

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

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.

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.