This is my ACRL 2011 handout for "Overcoming Barries to Digital Collaboration:Navigating International Copyright."

1. Overcoming Barriers to Digital Collaboration:
Navigating International Copyright Laws
Tiffany Brand
Reference and Instruction/Special Collections Librarian, University of Pittsburgh
tjb52@pitt.edu
Twitter: tiffanybrandlib
The era of digitization has raised questions as to the impact copyright has on digitized materials,
adding a new layer of questions in an area of rights management that is still being shaped by
emerging technologies and still has nascent standards for the creation and distribution of digital
materials. The list of resources below will help academic librarians determine rights holders of
foreign works , copyright precedence and will also aid in the successful implementation of rights
management during digital collaboration projects.
Major standards that impact the distribution of digital materials:
Berne Convention for the Protection of Artistic and Literary Works. Retrieved from
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/index.html
The Berne Convention, enacted in 1886, includes rules as to the distribution of works, how to
deal with works of indeterminate authorship, and exemptions to the convention. Includes the full
text of the Convention, list of the parties to the treaty, and the WIPO Handbook on Intellectual
Property.
Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Retrieved from
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/index.html
Title I, the WIPO Copyright and Performance and Phonograms Implementation Act, brings US
Copyright law into compliance with the signatory countries of the Berne Convention and
Universal Copyright Convention.
Universal Copyright Convention. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/6ngfu
Ratified in 1952 and modified in 1974, the UCC was at first intended as an alternative to the
Berne Convention and was backed by the USSR as an alternative to what was seen as a law that

2. benefitted western European countries. The UCC includes clauses exempting compliance from
countries who have signed the Berne Convention.
Uruguay Rounds Agreement Act. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/47spk5j
Enacted into law in 1995, the URAA had a major impact on foreign works-restoring copyright to
items previously considered in the public domain in the United States.
U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws
Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code. Retrieved from
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#104a
Sections § 104. Subject Matter of Copyright: National origin and § 104A Copyright in Restored
Works are applicable to rights management of foreign works.
Tools
Copyright Advisory Network. Digital Copyright Slider. Retrieved from
http://librarycopyright.net/wordpress/?p=101
Site includes information from librarians and the Office for Information Technology Policy
about copyright issues. Tools include the Digital Copyright Slider, Section 108 Spinner and Fair
Use Evaluator.
Other Resources
Allard, Suzie. 2002. Digital libraries and organizations for international collaboration and
knowledge creation. The Electronic Library 20 (5): 369-81.
Article includes rights management issues in an international context.
Council on Library and Information Resources. Copyright Issues Relevant to Digital
Preservation and Dissemination of Pre-1972 Commercial Sound Recordings by Libraries and
Archives. Retrieved from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub135/sec4.html
Section 4 includes 4.1.4 Are Collaborative Digital Preservation Projects Permissible? And 4.1.5
Use of Digital Preservation and Replacement Copies.
Hirtle, Peter B. (2008). Copyright Renewal, Copyright Restoration, and the Difficulty of
Determining Copyright Status. Retrieved from
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july08/hirtle/07hirtle.html
Mark, Timothy. 2007. National and international library collaboration: Necessity, advantages.
Liber Quarterly: The Journal of European Research Libraries 17 (3/4).
Article includes troubleshooting copyright issues in digital collaboration projects.

3. Pilch, J. T. (2003). Understanding Copyright Law for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian
Materials. Slavic & East European Information Resources, 4(1), 71. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lxh&AN=27651281&site=ehost-
live
---. (2005). Collision or coexistence? Copyright law in the digital environment. Slavic & East
European Information Resources, 6(2), 79-116.
Roudik, P. (2001). Issue of soviet copyright resolved. Slavic & East European Information
Resources, 2(2), 29-30, 31.
The resources above highlight copyright and rights management issues for former Soviet satellite
countries.