The Committee on Copyright & Other Legal Matters (CLM) met on 17 August, one day before the Conference officially began. Many developments are witnessed in the areas of intellectual properties and copyright since the Committee met in Boston last August. The publishers' community has been active in advancing its interests in the WTO, WIPO and other trade related international organizations and forums. The CLM is now exploring the possibility of cooperation with the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA) in countering the mounting pressure.
At the same Committee Meeting, the representative of Australia gave an update of the current law review as conducted by the Australian Copyright Law Review Committee. Since Hong Kong is now reviewing its Copyright Ordinance and I am the HKLA's representative in the Intellectual Property Department's Working Group for the classroom copyright guidelines, the update and discussion are useful for keeping me abreast of the most current developments in other countries.
After the last Committee Meeting, the position paper of The IFLA Position on the World Trade Organization proposed by CLM was formally adopted. The Committee is going to discuss and propose a new position paper, i.e., The IFLA Internet Manifesto. Together with the other position papers adopted in the past few years, the CLM has been successful in providing a repository of information and advice on copyright matters in the digital age.
In the CLM Seminar held on 19 August, the Committee drew the attention of
librarians on the emerging issue of repatriation of cultural materials. Up
till now, not too many librarians are aware of the issue and have the experience
of returning cultural materials obtained illicitly (e.g., books, manuscripts)
back to the original owners. Experts in this area shared with the audience
on several recent cases in which valuable items were returned to the original
owning institutions. Librarians were urged to keep track of the latest
development, develop a policy and work out due procedures in assessing those
items that came from uncertain or dubious sources.
Tommy Yeung
HKLA's Representative in the Copyright & Other
Legal Matters’ Committee