Seal of the United States Copyright Office, in use since January 1, 2004.Image via Wikipedia

On March 31, the Section 108 Study Group released their report and recommendations, three years in the making. The Study Group was convened to make recommendations to the U.S. Copyright Office. Mostly, the recommendations revolve around a new concept, “publicly disseminated works,” creating a middle ground between the prior concepts of “published” and “unpublished.” In very limited settings, the recommendation is that at-risk works that have been publicly disseminated can be archived by libraries or organizations with comprehensive preservation programs. Other issues, like digital interlibrary loan (ILL), were embraced in principle.

Information Today has good coverage of the recommendations.

An executive summary is available as well.

(Thanks to Carol Meyer for the tip.)

Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson is the CEO of RedLink and RedLink Network, a past-President of SSP, and the founder of the Scholarly Kitchen. He has worked as Publisher at AAAS/Science, CEO/Publisher of JBJS, Inc., a publishing executive at the Massachusetts Medical Society, Publishing Director of the New England Journal of Medicine, and Director of Medical Journals at the American Academy of Pediatrics. Opinions on social media or blogs are his own.

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