2030 Equal Access: To defend and promote readers and better-informed citizens

Abstract

The existence of limitations and exceptions (L&E) in domestic intellectual property legislation has helped improve and promote access to information and knowledge. However, such measures are still insufficient, and various issues are pending in terms of legislation (press clippings, orphan works, cross-border exchange, text and data mining, digital copies, digital preservation, big data, availability and exchange of audio books for blind users).

Paradoxically, and although technological developments have democratized access, commercial contracts and licenses and their associated costs make such access impossible for many citizens (imbalance: access and technologies). Worse still, technological restrictions due to contractual clauses create another major impediment. Contracts often include more restrictive terms than allowed for by L&E. Thus, the balance between public interest (access) and the interest of creators and authors (rights) is increasingly fragile. After the Berne Convention and its reinterpretations, the situation has become even more complex, with the balance leaning toward the rights and protections of authors and owners thanks to further agreements that expand and protect such rights and protections.

The goals of this presentation are to highlight unresolved problems; to promote coordinated actions at the regional and national levels that aim to place reforms that address the imbalance before our respective legislative bodies; to highlight the need for an L&E training program in order to strengthen the defense of access and promotion of creativity and; and to unify efforts to develop lobbying strategies that librarians should opportunely implement.