EMERGING FRONTIERS OF DIGITAL LIBRARIS: PERSPECTIVES, EMPOWERMENT AND ADVOCACY CONFERENCE (2011-12)

THE DYNAMICS OF EMERGING DIGITAL LIBRARY CONCEPT AND CONCERNS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW: THE TANGENCY POINT

To be presented by Parul Sharma

THE DYNAMICS OF EMERGING DIGITAL LIBRARY CONCEPT AND CONCERNS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW: THE TANGENCY POINT

- Parul Sharma

THE DYNAMICS OF EMERGING DIGITAL LIBRARY CONCEPT AND CONCERNS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW: THE TANGENCY POINT
By Parul Sharma*

INTRODUCTION
The way we seek and access information is changing. For those using emerging information technologies (ITs), the change is quite significant and revolutionary.1 With this said we see librarians and publishers struggling to find new operating paradigms for todays evolving paperless environment. It is now a well recognised fact that Libraries all over the world are undergoing transformation, especially owing to the development in information and communication technologies. Since, traditional physical libraries, while indispensable in modern societies, suffer from the fragility of their contents, the scarcity of their shelf space, the inefficiency of their search and retrieval systems, and the exclusivity of their access policies.2 In this state of metamorphosis we see traditional libraries changing to digital libraries and new libraries that are being set up are increasingly of the digital kind.3 The rationale is that information technology enables reproduction, saving and distribution of culture, arts and sciences as well as recording of the collective memory of humanity.4

*The author, Parul is a Student of BA.LL.B(Hons) IV year studying at Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow
1

T.B. Rajashekhar, Digital Libraries, Information Studies, Vol. I No. 4, Oct 1995, pp 223-238 at 223

Hannibal Travis, Building Universal Libraries: An Agenda fir Copyright Reform, Pepperdine Law Review Vol. 33:761 at p. 761.
3

Rekha Mittal, G. Mahesh, "Digital libraries in India: A Review", Libri: International Journal of Libraries and Information Services , 2008, Vol. 58, pp. 15-24.
4

Dionysia Kallinikou, Marinos P., Aexandra K., Intellectual Property Issues for Digital Libraries in the Internet networked sphere, 8th International Conference of Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry, Ionian University-Inseit, Corfu Greece, June 26-28, 2009, at pp. 2. Available at URL http://europe.creativecommons.org/webfm_send/15 (Last accessed 28.1.2012)

Digital Libraries of the 21st century is a hybrid form of a library that deviates from the traditional book keeping library of the past. The term digital library was coined because of the internet and refers to an evolved new form of a library that could cover a wide range of information services.5 The Digital Library, as we know today, is not merely a host of digitized books and collection, but rather it is an integration of information management systems, that consist of important elements such as data, meta data, human contribution (creators, users, managers), IT infrastructures (computer, networks, software) which are all orchestrated with the aim to organize, manage and make available i.e. open access to, knowledge and information to library users.6 The digital era in which libraries operate has significantly affected the legal paradigm, to mention radically altered the word copyright.7 Thus the major unsettled issue in the emerging networked digital library environment is that of copyright. 8 It is given that more often than not, the rapid pace in the evolution of Information technology causes friction with law in as much as regulators foresightedness could not have ruled to cope with new social trends, socio-political and economic phenomena in the market.9

Bokos, G., (2001) Introduction to Information Science, Papassotiriou p.168.

Atkins, D. E.(1997) Report of the Santa Fe Planning Workshop on Distributed Knowledge Work Environments: Digital Libraries, Report Version September 20, 1997, in which it is stated that the concept of a "digital library" is not merely equivalent to a digitized collection with information management tools. It is rather an environment to bring together collections, services, and people in support of the full life cycle of creation, dissemination, use, and preservation of data, information, and knowledge.
7

Mohammad Haroon Khan & G. Makhdumi, Copyright fails in libraries in digital era, International Caliber 2008, p. 402-409 at p.405. Available at URL http://ir.inflibnet.ac.in/dxml/bitstream/handle/1944/1293/42.pdf?sequence=1 (last accessed on 29.1.2012)
8

Vide supra note 1 at p. 236. Vide supra note 3 at p.2.

UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF DIGITAL LIBRARY (DL)

There is no legal definition of the concept of digital library. The concept of Digital library is multidimensional because of its dynamic nature it is very difficult to precisely outline a technical definition. However, two criteria should be taken into consideration when attempting to define digital libraries. The first one is that a digital library corresponds to a will to gather an amount of information, in order to preserve it and ensure the access of a determined or large public to this information. The second is that a digital library must possess a pre-established system of classification of its contents. On the basis of this criterion a digital library (DL) can be said to an electronic collection of real or virtual resources, which may also be available elsewhere.10 Further, the resources of DL are an organised collection of information items in digital format, accessible through computers.11 However, experts have observed that a DL is not merely equivalent to a digitized collection with information management tools. It us rather an environment to bring together collections, services, and people in support of the full life cycle of creation, dissemination, use and preservation of data, information and knowledge. 12 The DL of the 21st century is a borderless organization much like the Internet is a borderless network of networks. Access to DL does not depend any more upon proximity to the local physical premises of the organization. In addition, access to the contents of a DL does not require ownership of an item that becomes available through it. Instead of

10

A.D. Sood & U. Chandrasekharan, Digital Libraries in India: A Baseline Study, CKS Working Paper (2004). Avaialable at URL http://www.cks.in/html/cks_pdfs/digital_library_cks-edc.pdf (Last accessed on 29.1.2012)
11

Oren Bracha, Standing Copyright Law on its Head? The Googlization of everthing and the Many Faces of Property, Texas Law Review, Vol 85:1799 at p. 1817.
12

Atkins, D.E. (1997) Report of the Santa Fe Planning Workshop on Distributed knowledge Work Environments: Digital Libraries, Report Version Sept 20, 1997.

owning the publication, DL are leasing it under a license agreement. DLs focus has turned from the quest how they will digitize materials, store them and make them available to the quest how they will manage the rights along with the materials.13 And that is because the architecture per se of a digital library is different than what weve been used to. It is a peer-to-peer (hereinafter, P2P) architecture.14 P2P technological networks are of vital importance for the evolution of DL.15 Actually, on the eve of DL, P2P technological networks evolve as technological infrastructure that is an important architectural element for DLs networking with peers and competitive advantage.16 Further, electronic databases could be considered as digital libraries with certain particular features, while, on the other hand, every digital library could be regarded as a database.
17Digital

libraries and databases share a common set of attributes. Firstly,

they serve a set of common purposes. Hence, they are both used in order to collect, organize and provide accessibility to digitized items. Secondly, they seem to share a fundamental social function. Their substantial functional mission is the structured aggregation of human knowledge and its making available to the public. 18

13

Coyle, K (2004) The rights in the Digital Rights Management, D-Lib Magazine, 10(9). Available at URL http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september04/coyle/09coyle.html (Last accessed on 30.1.2012)
14

Kallinikou, D. Papadopoulos, M.; Kaponi, A, Strakantouna,V. ,Alternative system for non-commercial use of intellectual property in consideration of free P2P file-sharing, (2009) pp.3-7
15

See Ioannidis, Y. and Schek, H.-J. and Weikum, G., (2005). Future Digital Libraries Management Systems: System Architecture and Information Access, 8th DELOS Thematic Workshop, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.
16

Vide Supra note 4 at p. 5.

17

The close relation between digital libraries and databases is confirmed by the legal definition of databases established by the Directive 96/9/EC. Article 1 of the Directive 96/9 provides that a database shall mean a collection of independent works, data or other materials arranged in a systematic or methodical way and individually accessible by electronic or other means. It must be noticed that this is a comprehensive legal definition which was introduced by a European regulatory text for the needs of a specific legal protection and does not intend to serve as a technical definition of the term database Available at URL http://eurlex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!DocNumber&lg=en&type_doc=Directive&an_doc =1996&nu_doc=9 (Last accessed on 30.1.2012)
18

Tatiani-Eleni Synodinou, The Protection of Digital Libraries as Databases: An Ideal Choice or a Paradox, IGI Global (2011). Available at URL www.irma-international.org/chapter/protection-digital-librariesdatabases/

ISSUES CONCERNING DIGITAL LIBRARIES

The development of Digital Libraries and repositories, a worldwide vision with enormous political and ideological importance for humanity in an effort to approach cultures and preserve plurality and diversity is directly affected by the provisions of Intellectual Property Law and is subject to the consideration of innovation through legislation.19 The raison d'etre of Digital Libraries, per se, is serving the interests of knowledge dissemination and quest for making knowledge accessible. Since Digital Libraries transcend the physical limitations of space and time, the potential of wide scale dissemination & accessibility is amplified. However to structure this potential as a viable reality the sine qua non is open access. Since Digital libraries are repositories of works include in their contents various classes of works which makes copyright issues an inevitable concern for Digital Libraries. Because either the works may have protection subsisting or may have fallen in public domain on account of expiry of term of protection.20 The onset of Digital Libraries has substantially and radically altered the essence of copyright protection scheme. Essentially, copyright material has become much more vulnerable to unauthorised copying and new technologies have overcome the restrictions upon the dissemination of material that existed in the copyright era. 21 Given the fact that intellectual property has always been in the crossroads of conflicting

47478/ (Last accessed on 31.1.2012) 19 Vide supra note 4 at p.2.

20

The Scheme of Indian Copyright Act, 1957 encourages creation of works of authorship by granting exclusive rights for a limited period of time. The work created might be musical, artistic, dramatic, motion picture, sound recording, etc. If the work falls into one of the subject matter categories and is expressed on a tangible medium, the author gets a bundle of exclusive rights, which include the right to reproduce, distribute, make derivative works, adapt, abridge and so on. 21 Mohammad Haroon Khan & G. Makhdumi, Copyright fails in libraries in digital era, International Caliber 2008, p. 402-409 at p.405. Available at URL http://ir.inflibnet.ac.in/dxml/bitstream/handle/1944/1293/42.pdf?sequence=1 (last accessed on 29.1.2012)

interests among the creators, right holders and the general public, and it has always been a vexing problem to balance among the conflicting copyright-related interests.22

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND DIGITAL LIBRARIES: THE TANGENCY POINT

The evolution of information technology is frequently seen as a factor that sets at stake the legal rights of creators and right holders, as a cause for stricter intellectual property law and legal protection for the initial and subsequent right holders.23 This corresponding response of fastening the clasps of intellectual property laws, in most cases, is hazardous to the evolution pace of digital libraries and repositories. This explains why copyright is the major unsettled issue in the emerging networked digital library environment. Thus, an enquiry as to the extent of adequacy and appropriateness of the present copyright law enacted primarily and essentially to cater to the requirements of print medium is crucial and indispensable. The present copyright laws try to strike a balance in meeting the need to compensate the author for his/her intellectual effort, revenue generation for the publisher for the investment in printing, marketing and distribution of the publication and to provide public access to knowledge through fair use. 24 Internet and digital revolution, on the other hand, pose even more complex problems for copyright law. The 3 technological advances namely, the digitalization of information, networking and www has turned the economics of information upside down. Digitalization of information has changed the economics of reproduction, networking has changed the economics of distribution and

22

Kallinikou, D. (2008) Archives, Libraries and Copyright. Proceedings of the Conference, Archives, Libraries and the Law in the era of Information Society, Athens, February 2-3, 2006 23 Vide supra note 4 at p.1.
24

Vide supra note 1 at p. 236.

www has changed the economics of publication.25 Thus, in this digitally networked age legal issues such as those related to software use, database protection, and those pertaining to collection, digitalization, archiving and distribution of protected works are of utmost importance and are crucial for the operation, per se, as well as operational viability.

COPYRIGHT PROTECTION & DIGITAL LIBRARIES: THE ALIGNMENT IN THIS DIGITAL ERA
Copyright is a legal concept part of a broader notion of intellectual property with critical legal and ethical issues involved. The copyright issues that pertain to the legitimate operation of a DL are complex and intricate in nature. Digital Libraries, as repositories of works including in their contents copyrighted works as well as works with no copyright protection such as works in public domain. Frequently, DLs are licensed creators of derivative works i.e. a variety of digital media and formats of the same work furnished to it. A DL, also, could contain many different copyrights. For example a textual article or e-book are protected as literary works, photographs as artistic works, music CD or DVD as musical works. 26 To understand the dynamics of copyright concerns in respect of digital libraries it is essential to first understand the concept of copyright and its object and protection structure. The object of copyright law is to encourage authors, composers, artists and designers to create original works by rewarding them with the exclusive right for a limited period to exploit the work for monetary gain. The economic exploitation is done by licensing such exclusive right to entrepreneurs like publishers, film producers, distributors, etc for a monetary consideration. Since these entrepreneurs invest capital
25

Bibhuti Bhusan Sahoo & I.K. Ravichandra Rao, Copyright and Digital Libraries, Workshop on DL: Theory and Practice, March 2003, DRTC Bangalore. 26 Pedley, P. (2007) Digital Copyright, 2nd edn, Facet Publishing

in the publishing or production of works, therefore to ensure that their invested capital is recovered and profit is earned on the invested capital, the entrepreneur is to be protected from unauthorised reproduction. The phenomenal growth of World Wide Web has networked the globe and blurred the distinct functions of authors and publishers. The apparent function publishers serve is to manufacture physical artefacts and ship them around, this would suggest that there would be no need for publishers in digital environment for the authors can manufacture and ship the bits on the net quite as readily as the publishers can. Further, if libraries exist to provide a physical place to house a large number of physical artefacts to which remotely located individual travel for access, these institutions too would seem to be slated for extinction. But the more likely scenario, the authors believe, at least for the near future, is for the intermediate players like publishers and libraries to continue to exist, with redefined roles and functions for example, the publishers to perform roles and function such as selection of quality products, editing, producing, referring and promotion, in the networked environment and libraries as digital libraries to act as collection building agents, publishers of catalogues and guides, etc. 27 The problem arises in this scenario when the question of managing copyright protection comes. Since the exclusive right of publishers to exploit the original work enabled capital recovery, how will the cost distribution be structured in this digital age with altered functions of intermediaries? Thus, one of the key problem in this form of electronic publishing is that current legislation does not deal with the intricacies of computer based networked systems resulting in many grey areas. In some cases, strict

27

Vide supra note 1 at p.236.

application of laws in their current form can even result in severe restrictions that eliminate advantages brought by technology. 28 The disjuncture between Indian copyright law provisions and the advancements in information technology is one of the key hurdles for digital libraries in India. Thus in India, under the prevailing scheme of provisions for establishing digital library one needs permission in respect of the libraries contents from the respective copyright holders.

PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE RESPONSE FOR TACKLING IPR ISSUES IN THE WAKE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
The sphere of Intellectual Property Law (IPR), particularly Copyright law, has been grappling with the rapid changes wrought by the shifting technological landscape causing Copyright Law has as a result become a central issue in communications law and policy. As as been observed by Andrew and Emily (2004) A key reason for copyright laws growing importance lies in the way digitisation dramatically alters the nature of accessing and communicating material. In the analogue world, access and copying were, to a large extent, distinct acts. Restrictions on copying material did not unduly limit peoples ability to access material in the first place. This is no longer the case. Because of the way material is reproduced within digital communications, copying is an unavoidable incident of accessing copyright material.
29

Technological progress has also vested

increased powers of control in copyright owners and this increased power of control

28 29

Vide supra note 25 at p. 6. Andrew T Kenyon and Emily Hudson, Copyright, Digitisation and Cultural Institutions (2004) Available at URL at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=603861. (Last accessed 1.02.2012)

has the potential of suffocate the cultural commons, replacing it with a market in words and sentences30or a pay-per-use economy in digital information31 In this situation, the proposed amendments to copyright law, and questions about how the law should develop, are very contentious. The Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 seeks to amend the Copyright Act, 1957 with certain changes for clarity, to remove operational difficulties and also to address certain newer issues that have emerged in the context of digital technologies and the Internet. The Bill also seeks to bring the provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957 in conformity with the two World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet Treaties, namely, WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT), 1996 and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), 1996 to the extent considered necessary and desirable.32 The proposed amendment has taken into consideration various concerns that are raised by the present digitalised environment. The proposed amendment bill seeks to address with precision the drawbacks of digital technology so as to ensure all the loopholes are covered; one of the drawbacks of digital technology was the possibility of high rate of infringement (digital piracy) and the technological solutions that are generally used to prevent this. Digital locks (technological protection measures -popularly known as TPM) were invented to prevent infringement of works. At the same time, duplicate keys
30

Macmillan, F. (1999). Striking the copyright balance in the digital environment. International Company and Commercial Law Review, 10 (12), 350-60.
31

Samuelson, P. (2002). Toward a new deal for copyright in the information age. Michigan Law Review, 100, 1488-1505
32

The WCT and the WPPT were negotiated in 1996 to address the challenges posed to the protection of copyrights and related rights by digital technology, particularly with regard to the dissemination of protected material over digital networks such as Internet. The WCT deals with the protection for the authors of literary and artistic works such as writings, computer programmes, original data-bases, musical works, audio-visual works, works of the fine art and photographs. The WPPT protects certain related rights which are the rights of the performers and producers of phonograms. In order to extend protection of copyright material in India over digital networks such as Internet and other computer networks in respect of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematograph films and sound recordings works of performers, the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 seeks to harmonise the Copyright Act, 1957 with the two WIPO Internet Treaties.

(circumvention technology) were also developed to unlock the digital locks used by owners of copyright to prevent infringement. The use of TPM had a significant impact on users since the freedom to use the work (fair use of works) permitted by law was considerably regulated through these measures. In the absence of the owner of the works providing key to enjoy fair use, the only option was to circumvent the technology to enjoy fair use of works. There was considerable demand to protect the TPM from circumvention by banning manufacture and sale of devices used for circumvention. On the other hand, the users argued that this would prevent the development of dual use technology and also prevent the enjoyment of fair use permitted by law. The major problem of use of law in preventing circumvention was the impact on public interest on access to work facilitated by the copyright laws. Attention was drawn to the WIPO treaties which provided a very flexible provision to protect TPM. This provision allowed member countries to develop laws to prevent circumvention of technological measures, keeping in mind the public interest of access to works. Developed countries like US, EU, Australia, Japan etc. have enacted laws to prevent circumvention resulting in abuse and affecting public interest. The unintended consequences of these laws resulted in blocking research and development of new technologies. It is further pointed out in the committee report on the proposed amendment bill that India is yet to face major problems of circumvention due to low level of penetration of digital technology.33

33

Department - related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development two hundred twenty-seventh report on the copyright (amendment) bill, 2010 (presented to the rajya sabha on 23rd november, 2010 and laid on the table of lok sabha on 23rd november, 2010)

ALTERNATE PROTECTION REGIME IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

We come to an understanding that digital content in the digital world differs from objects in real world. The main reason of such difference being the amplified dissemination potential in digital content meaning thereby that it can be easily copied, altered, and distributed to a large number of recipients seamlessly. This almost certainly causes copyright infringement and revenue losses to content owners. That is to say, Content owners were in want of a technology that can control the use of their content. Further, they were in need of a protocol of hardware and software services and technologies that can govern the authorized use of digital content and manage any consequences of use throughout the life-cycle of the content.34 All these factors and concerns gave birth to the concept of Digital Rights Management as a very apt circumstantial response. At the very onset it is critical to mention that DRM is not an implementation of copyright law, it is a system for the protection of digital works. Further, it has been observed that DRM has the potential to have a tremendous impact on libraries and how they do their work.35 What is Digital Rights Management? In 2003, the Congressional Internet Caucus Program on Digital Rights Management, American Library Association states that Digital Rights Management is a term used for

34

American Library Association (ALA 2003), Digital Right Management and Libraries, Congressional Internet Caucus program on Digital Rights Management. Also see, N.S.Harinarayan, C. M., Digital Rights Management in Digital Libraries: An Introduction to Technology, Effects and the Available Open Source Tools, 7th International CALIBER-2009, Pondicherry University,Puducherry, February 25-27, 2009 . K Coyle, The Technology of Rights: Digital Rights Management, Based on a talk originally given at the library of the Congress at November 19, 2003. Available at URLhttp://www.kcoyle.net/drm_basics.pdf (Last accessed on 3.2.2012)
35

technologies that control how digital content is used. Technologists and information scientists consider DRM as a tool which address the issues pertaining to 1. Digital Rights Enforcement (DRE) environment 2. Digital Rights, and 3. Standardization for interoperability36 DRM is not a single technology and it is not even a single philosophy. It refers to a broad range of technologies and standards, many of which are still in the planning and development stage, and that are applied to describe the digital content and to identify the user. The primary purpose of DRM is to control access, use and distribution; and thereby protect the interests of copyright holders in the online environment. The impetus for DRM is found increases in telecommunications bandwidth and the concomitant increases in digital file transfer and copying over the internet.37 The operational mechanism of DRM is to implement licenses through software controls, they are grants that can be expressed in a computer environment. The rights or grants in these licenses do not depend or in other words are not aligned with the rights under copyright law; they are rather independent and more precisely they complement copyright laws by providing a parallel content and use protection mechanism for DRM. For instance a particular license may allow you to make copies of up to five pages in a book. If you need to copy six pages, and if you feel that the copying of those pages would be allowed under the doctrine of fair use, the software will still only allow you to copy five pages. Where the law allows some flexibility and asks us to make judgments, DRM implementations will be quantitative in nature. 38

36

Vide Supra note 34. Id. See, K Coyle, The Technology of Rights: Digital Rights Management (Note 35).

37

38

CONCLUSION
With the shift in the technological landscape one finds that internet has matured to near-ubiquity level and this modern state of internet has triggered the sudden interest in the concept of digital libraries. However, it is apparent that there still remain doubts as to the clear and precise universal concept of Digital Libraries, per se, and their structure. The consensus is that all notions of digital libraries include electronic (digital) storage of materials for retrieval or processing. Beyond this common base there are several major approaches to digital libraries and its structures and its structural variants. Some of the major approaches include data stores, electronic access to traditional library materials, and scholarly archives. That is to say, different visions of digital libraries include the digital library for electronic access to materials previously found in print form, access to data stores, and access to scholarly (self-published) materials.

The fact that present copyright law protection regime try to strike a balance between the interests of authors as well as the publishers, that is to say, the need to compensate the author for his/her intellectual effort as well as ensuring the source of revenue generation for the publisher is incoherent with the structure and operation mechanism of a digital library. Because the economics of digital library is entirely different from that of print based media, there is shift in the conceptual understanding of issues such as reproduction, distribution in context of digital library. The copyright law accords protection to author for his creative work and publisher for his investment carrying out the reproduction and distribution. The digitalized environment where digital libraries exist the capital investment is in creating the operational web infrastructure and there is no investment in terms of reproduction and distribution and by adopting pay per use

model, or licensing, long term membership can be used to safeguard the economic interests of developers of digital libraries. As regards protection regime for unauthorised reproduction of contents various DRM tools can be used to ensure the required protection. There are various DRM tools like: 1 Encryption: Encryption is a technique to protect digital work. In this techniques we encrypt the file using a key and only the key holders are able to decrypt the file . In this way we protect data from unauthorised user but not fully because key holders have the authority to disclose the key to other users. If key linked with BIOS or hardware of the authorized user then the security level will be increased. 2 Adobe Acrobat: Adobe Acrobat has the facility to protect digital work from copying and pasting. In Adobe Acrobat we define security methods such that the protected files are not copied as well as not printed. 3 Microsoft Reader: Microsoft reader may be used to read e-book. It provides protection of digital data from tampering by highlighting the name of owner, protection from copying and pasting. 4 Watermarking: Watermarking is a group of methods and technologies that can protect digital data. Watermarking may be used for copyright protection of Digital data .By watermarking techniques we can protect our files, images, audio, video, etc. Watermarking may also be used in authentication, certification, photo development laboratory, OCR software etc. Some watermarking tools available are WMT Plus, visual water mark.

Thus, in the present scenario the ends of justice can be met while giving necessary impetus to digital libraries by adopting a hybrid model of protection, which would include both copyright protection as well as protection by means of digital rights

management (DRM). Copyright protection would include protecting digital libraries as databases. Since Copyright protects only the conceptual or architectural structure of a database. Thus, it can only protect the structure of digital library and not the corpus of its contents. This has been adopted as a rule in the European Directive 96/9/EC on the legal protection of databases and is a principal of US copyright law. Protection to digital library can be accorded on the grounds of it being an intellectual creation. For instance, according to Article 3 para.1 of the Directive, databases which, by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents, constitute the authors own intellectual creation shall be protected as such by copyright. Thus the sine qua non laid down is that if the selection or arrangement of their contents constitute the authors own intellectual creation. It is on the line of the same principle that US Supreme Court in Feist Publications, INC v. Rural Telephone Service Co. [499 U.S. 340 (1991)] had evolved the doctrine of the sweat of the brow according to which a minimum original creativity has to be manifested in the subject matter of copyright protection. Thus, the structure of the digital library can be accorded protection as a database while the corpus can be protected via digital rights management technologies. That is to say in this hybrid protection model, the digital library as a whole shall derive protection via database protection regime and the corpus or the contents can be protected from unauthorised reproduction, as already said, by DRM technologies. However, one contentious issue still remains which needs to be addressed and that is the contents of a digital library may have copyright protection subsisting by virtue of their being a work of intellectual creation, what will be operation paradigm of the digital libraries when incorporating copyrighted contents in their database in terms of obtaining rights from the owner of the copyright and the payment of royalties.