LACA demands exemptions from DRM

Archiving and copyright specialist group the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA) is calling on the government to exempt specific
collections from digital rights management (DRM) protection.

LACA submitted proposals to the All-Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG), a forum that allows the internet industry and MPs to meet. APIG launched an inquiry into DRMlast November and is expected to produce a final report, along with copies of the submissions it received, in April.

In its submission to APIG, LACA, along with the British Library , expressed concern about the potential use of DRM to override existing copyright exceptions, including fair dealing for criticism or review.

“DRM is pretty clunky,” said Barbara Stratton, senior copyright adviser at Cilip and LACA secretary. “There are several layers of protection in an electronic work. It’s very complicated to develop an algorithm that can deal with everything.”

Stratton said there were three main problems with DRM: it can “interfere with the statutory rights users have to copy limited amounts of material”; it can be “obsolete in three years”, leaving libraries with a database that doesn’t work; and visually impaired users often can’t access DRM-protected software because the technology blocks text-to-voice applications.

“The ideal would be a solution law giving specified libraries permission to be given clean copies that they can keep for preservation purposes,” said Stratton. She added that LACA had recommended that librarians archivists be allowed to circumvent DRM technology tomake copies permitted under existing copyright law ( click here for more copyright news).

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