(Photo credits: Here’s Kate)
The CDPA 1988 includes a number of defences for libraries and archives. The demands made for public libraries for copying documents in their possession will not usually be covered by the fair dealing provisions and may not protect the librarian. Other defences are available for the preservation of cultural documents that require disposition in appropriate archives.
All the relevant defences under this heading apply only to prescribed non-profit libraries.
- Sections 38 and 39 permit libraries to copy literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic works upon the request of individuals for their research or private study. Section 38 regulates the request for copying articles from a periodical, while Section 39 regulates the request for copying whole or part of a published edition.
- Section 40A permits libraries to lend works to the public without infringing copyright as long as the book is eligible within the public lending right scheme. Section 40A(2) permits libraries to lend works to another non-profit library without infringing copyright (regardless of public licensing scheme).
- Section 41 permits libraries to make a copy of a periodical article, or whole or part of a published edition of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work in order to supply another prescribed library.
- Section 42 permits libraries to make copies to preserve or replace material in libraries main collection. (Provided that purchase of a replacement is not reasonably practical).
- Section 43 permits libraries and archives to copy certain unpublished works. (In many cases unpublished works of historical or literary interest have been deposited with libraries or other institutions, and it may be in the general public interest that they should eventually be published – {Copinger})
- Section 44 permits a designated body to copy an article of cultural or historical importance in situations where deposit of such work as a condition for export.