PRINCIPLES IN ADDRESSING THESE CHALLENGES

15.8 Awareness
Preservation programmes must be aware of the legal frameworks in which they
operate, including their legal rights, constraints and obligations. This may require
reference to specific legal advice from a competent source. Even with good intentions
to preserve important heritage materials, preservation programmes are responsible for
seeking ways to achieve their mission without infringing the legitimate rights of
others.

15.9 Advocacy
Preservation programmes must decide on the extent to which they should engage in
advocacy on rights issues, presenting arguments for legislation that would make it
easier for a wide range of digital materials to be preserved.

At a minimum, preservation programmes should ensure that interested parties are

aware of the rights required for effective preservation action.

15.10 Finding workable solutions

While finding solutions to rights issues may not be easy, the problems are usually not
insurmountable. Resolving them does require respect for the legitimate interests of
others. Solutions can usually be developed through a cooperative approach that
recognises mutual needs and benefits. Preservation programmes can make a large
contribution by showing that:
Sound management of rights is possible
There are ways of meeting preservation objectives without jeopardising
reasonable commercial interests
Through their documentation and metadata services, preservation programmes
can promote community knowledge and use of rights owners products
By selecting material for preservation, preservation programmes can confirm
the importance of records, research results and other non-published materials.

Many preservation programmes have found satisfactory ways to approach rights

issues, often in partnership with rights owners. Such models range from quite simple
agreements with individual rights owners (common in data archives and in selective
archives of Web publications), to long-sighted partnerships between very large
commercial publishers and national libraries.

These models are usually based on a mixture of transferred, managed and retained
rights. For example, the right to store and preserve material may be completely
transferred, while the preservation programme is required to closely manage access
and the producer retains copyright.

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