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UNITED KINGDOM SERIALS GROUP CONFERENCEUMIST, 31 MARCH 2004

THE LEGAL DEPOSIT LIBRARIES ACT 2003

Dr Clive Field

Director of Scholarship and Collections

The British Library

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OVERVIEW

• History of Legal Deposit in the UK since 1610

• Build-up to Legislation, 1996-2002

• Parliamentary Process in 2002/3

• Provisions of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act

• Implementing the Legal Deposit Libraries Act

• Conclusions

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HISTORY OF LEGAL DEPOSIT IN THE UK SINCE 1610 (1)

• 1610 - Stationers’ Company agrees to deposit at Bodleian Library of one copy of all new publications registered at Stationers’ Hall

• 1662 - Press Licensing Act grants Royal Library one copy of all new publications

• 1709 - Copyright Act accords legal deposit library status to nine libraries - Royal Library, Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library and six others (five in Scotland)

• 1757 - Royal Library’s right passes to British Museum (and thus, in 1972, to British Library)

• 1814 - Copyright Act accords legal deposit status to eleven libraries and tightens up regulations

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HISTORY OF LEGAL DEPOSIT IN THE UK SINCE 1610 (2)

• 1836 - Copyright Act reduces legal deposit libraries to five - British Museum, Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Faculty of Advocates, Trinity College Dublin

• 1911 - Copyright Act adds National Library of Wales

• 1925 - National Library of Scotland Act adds National Library of Scotland for Faculty of Advocates

• 1927 -reciprocal deposit of UK and Irish publications introduced following creation of Irish Republic

• 1968 - Theatres Act requires deposit of playscripts with British Library

• UK increasingly lagging behind other countries in only having statutory arrangements for print

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BUILD-UP TO LEGISLATION, 1996-2002 (1)

• January 1996 - British Library and other legal deposit libraries present Proposal for the Legal Deposit of Non-Print Publications to the Department of National Heritage, seeking new primary legislation and subsidiary legislation through Regulations

• 1996 - British Library Research and Development commissions and publishes series of studies looking at issues arising from such extension, especially in digital world (BL R&D Reports 6242, 6243, 6244, 6245)

• February 1997 - Government publishes Legal Deposit of Publications: A Consultation Paper, affirming commitment to legislation and inviting views on options for extending legal deposit, and including compliance cost assessment by Deloitte and Touche

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BUILD-UP TO LEGISLATION, 1996-2002 (2)

• January 1998 - Government publishes Legal Deposit of Publications: Summary of Responses to the Consultation Paper - 161 replies received

• January 1998 - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport establishes working party, chaired by Sir Anthony Kenny and including libraries and publishers, to investigate how legal deposit could be extended, while minimising burdens on publishers

• July 1998 - Report of the Working Party on Legal Deposit concluded that, in longer term, only statutory scheme, through enabling legislation, would be adequate to secure comprehensive national published archive and set out general principles for such a system

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BUILD-UP TO LEGISLATION, 1996-2002 (3)

• December 1998 - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport responds to working party’s report in Parliamentary answer, accepting case for moving towards legislation but requesting voluntary code of practice and pilot scheme as interim measure

• January 1999 - publishers and libraries commence work on drafting of voluntary scheme

• July 1999 - publishers and libraries agree to establish Joint Committee on Voluntary Deposit

• September 1999 - voluntary code of practice issued for ratification

• January 2000 - voluntary code of practice for handheld (offline) publications commences

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BUILD-UP TO LEGISLATION, 1996-2002 (4)

• January 2000 - first formal meeting of Joint Committee on Voluntary Deposit (JCVD)

• Relatively good rates of deposit of offline material and, increasingly, willingness of some publishers to deposit e-serial publications on voluntary basis, especially with British Library

• March 2002 - British Library Domain UK: Interim Report on voluntary Web harvesting pilot

• April 2002 - Government informs British Library of its intention to move towards legislation via Handout Bill

• April 2002 - JCVD issues tender for study to assess costs and other quantifiable impacts of extension of legal deposit on publishers and libraries

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BUILD-UP TO LEGISLATION, 1996-2002 (5)

• June 2002 - Electronic Publishing Services (EPS) Ltd awarded contract for study

• June 2002 - British Library and Oxford University Library Services demonstrate proof of concept secure network to publishers to illustrate how offline material could be securely networked with restricted access from single-copy deposit offline material

• October 2002 - publication of EPS report on The Impact of the Extension of Legal Deposit to Non-Print Publications - covers outputs to 2005 and develops models for calculating publisher and library costs, focusing mainly on electronic monographs and serials and microform - draws upon industry data, library data, and publisher questionnaires

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PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS IN 2002/3 (1)

• 21 November 2002 - outcome of Commons ballot for Private Members’ Bills - Chris Mole subsequently picks up extension of legal deposit as Handout Bill

• 11 December 2002 - House of Commons presentation and first reading - Hansard (Commons), Vol. 396, col. 286

• 6 January 2003 - first meeting of British Library campaign team, supported by Portcullis Research, masterminding parliamentary lobbying, external supporter influencing and media campaign from libraries’ side and meeting weekly throughout much of 2003

• 7 March 2003 - Bill and House of Commons standing note published

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PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS IN 2002/3 (2)

• 7 March 2003 - routine meeting of JCVD surfaces immediate publisher concerns re preservation and access clauses of Bill - thereafter, Digital Content Forum (DCF) increasingly succeeds JCVD as representative publisher body

• 10 March 2003 - Explanatory notes published

• 11 March 2003 - Regulatory impact assessment published

• 14 March 2003 - House of Commons second reading - Government Minister Kim Howells - Hansard (Commons), Vol. 401, col. 577

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PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS IN 2002/3 (3)

• mid-March-late June 2003 - extensive shuttle diplomacy between British Library, Government and publishers to resolve publisher concerns - generic publisher concerns about proportionality of burden and adequacy of consultation by Government - specific concerns from database and newspaper publishers

• 30 April 2003 - joint submission to Government by libraries and DCF setting out thirteen principles of agreement

• 14 May 2003 - Government response and undertakings to joint submission

• 4 June 2003 - House of Commons Committee - amendments from Government and Opposition - Government Minister Kim Howells - Hansard (Commons), Standing Committee F, col. 3

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PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS IN 2002/3 (4)

• 4 July 2003 - House of Commons report stage and third reading - amendments from Government and Opposition - Government Minister Estelle Morris - Hansard (Commons), Vol. 408, col. 671

• 7 July 2003 - House of Lords introduction - no debate - Hansard (Lords), Vol. 651, col. 12

• August 2003 - further shuttle diplomacy between British Library, Government and publishers to resolve publisher concerns

• 12 September 2003 - House of Lords second reading - Government Minister Lord Evans - Hansard (Lords), Vol. 652, col. 561

• 6 October 2003 - House of Lords Committee - no debate - Hansard (Lords), Vol. 653, col. 22

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PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS IN 2002/3 (5)

• 13 October 2003 - House of Lords third reading - no debate - Hansard (Lords), Vol. 653, col. 609

• 13 October 2003 - final meeting of British Library campaign team

• 30 October 2003 - Royal Assent given as Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 Chapter 28 - Hansard (Commons), Vol. 412, col. 415, Hansard (Lords), Vol. 654, col. 375 (ISBN 010 562 803 4)

• 4 December 2003 - British Library reception to thank publishers for support

• 15 December 2003 - British Library reception at House of Commons to thank parliamentarians for support

• 1 January 2004 - commencement

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PROVISIONS OF THE LEGAL DEPOSIT LIBRARIES ACT (1)

• Explanatory Notes to Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 Chapter 28 - for full commentary

• Duty on publishers to deposit (s. 1)

• Voluntary arrangements for sound (British Library) and film (British Film Institute) implicitly continued (s. 1(5))

• New and alternative editions - deposit restricted to one edition and one medium (s. 2)

• Enforcement - county court order to deposit or to make payment not exceeding cost of making good failure to comply (s. 3)

• Printed publications - carried over with only minor amendments from 1911 Act affecting British Library (s. 4) and five other libraries (s. 5)

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PROVISIONS OF THE LEGAL DEPOSIT LIBRARIES ACT (2)

• Secretary of State enabled to make Regulations to extend to other non-print formats, offline and online (s. 6)

• Restrictions on activities by libraries in relation to non-print publications (s. 7)

• New consequential exceptions to Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 and Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 (s. 8)

• Exemptions from liability for publishers in respect of breach of contract (s. 9)

• Exemptions from liability for publishers and libraries for defamation and provision for Web harvesting (s. 10)

• Restrictions on making of Regulations including publisher safeguards (s. 11)

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PROVISIONS OF THE LEGAL DEPOSIT LIBRARIES ACT (3)

• Consultation with Scotland and Wales over Regulations (s. 12)

• Extension to Trinity College Dublin requires equivalence of protection of publisher interests under Irish law (s. 13)

• Matters of interpretation (s. 14)

• Consequential amendments, repeals and revocations (s. 15)

• Commencement and extent (s. 16)

• Short title (s. 17)

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IMPLEMENTING THE LEGAL DEPOSIT LIBRARIES ACT (1)

STATUTORY ROUTE

• I January 2004 - print legal deposit starts to operate under new Act rather than Copyright Act 1911

• 17 November 2003 - first tripartite meeting of Government, libraries and publishers on implementation, with special reference to establishment of Advisory Panel

• 3 February 2004 - joint submission of libraries and publishers to Government on composition and terms of reference of Advisory Panel

• Government proposals on Advisory Panel awaited - formal public consultation required

• Advisory Panel expected to be appointed towards the very end of 2004, possibly as advisory Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB)

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IMPLEMENTING THE LEGAL DEPOSIT LIBRARIES ACT (2)

• First task will probably be definition of what constitutes UK publication in non-print world

• First Regulation almost certainly likely to be offline publications

VOLUNTARY ROUTE

• Voluntary scheme for offline continued throughout whole Parliamentary process and still ongoing

• JCVD not formally convened after 7 March 2003 meeting although continued to exist as online reporting and consultation group

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IMPLEMENTING THE LEGAL DEPOSIT LIBRARIES ACT (3)

• June-October 2003 - libraries and publishers discuss and agree expanded JCVD as interim body - membership enlarged to include eight publisher groupings and all legal deposit libraries

• 13 January 2004 - first meeting of Joint Committee on Legal Deposit (JCLD) - membership, terms of reference and modus operandi agreed (ratified at second meeting on 22 March 2004)

• JCLD will undertake review of voluntary scheme for offline publications with view to early Regulation, will initiate discussion about definition of UK publication, will consider voluntary scheme for e-journals, and will track the UK Web Archiving Consortium (voluntary scheme for Web content)

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CONCLUSIONS (1)

• Historic piece of legislation, especially for so large a publishing nation as UK

• Need to extend legislation as matter of principle never disputed by publishers nor by parliamentarians of all parties - genuine cross-party support

• Publishers were exercised about proportionality of burden, degree of access that would be permitted, and perceived inadequacy of consultation by Government

• Drafting and publication schedules for original Bill and subsequent amendments were certainly tight, for both publishers and libraries

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CONCLUSIONS (2)

• Complex piece of legislation for Government, requiring consultation between Department for Culture, Media and Sport (principal owner of Act), Department for Trade and Industry, Patent Office and Department for Constitutional Affairs - also consultation with devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland Office and with Irish Government

• Interfaces with existing copyright and database legislation especially complicated

• Ministerial assurances to publishers, on Parliamentary record, were probably almost as important as amendments in smoothing passage of Act

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CONCLUSIONS (3)

• Sensitivities around future roles of National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales and needs of Northern Ireland (where no legal deposit library)

• Despite inevitable differences of interest and emphasis, good working relations between publishers and libraries were maintained, even at most difficult stages of Parliamentary process - JCLD looks set to replicate constructive engagement which characterised JCVD

• Sustained and well-orchestrated lobbying and diplomacy by British Library on behalf of all legal deposit libraries were critical to success