September 30, 1993
Contact: Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189
First CD-ROMs Deposited at Library of Congress Under New Copyright Agreement
The Library of Congress today accepted the first CD-ROM
publications to be deposited for copyright and public use at the
Library of Congress under new model agreements negotiated and
endorsed by the Library of Congress and members of the
Information Industry Association (IIA), the National Federation
of Abstracting and Information Services (NFAIS), and the
Association of American Publishers (AAP).
The three CD-ROM publications deposited today are the AIDS
Compact Library (Macmillan New Media), PsycINFO (American
Psychological Association), and CD-Calculus (John Wiley & Sons).
Previously, CD-ROM publishers had been reluctant to deposit
their copyrighted works at the Library, as required by the U.S.
copyright law. This was because of concerns about physical
security and protection against possible unauthorized
duplication or dissemination.
After a year and a half of negotiations, the Library of
Congress and the three information industry associations have
endorsed four documents. The purpose of the documents is to
induce prompt voluntary deposit of a significant number of
works.
The documents establish ground rules for access by the
public to the CD-ROMs that the Library acquires through
copyright deposit and adds to its collections.
The parties have produced four documents. Two documents
will be used by publishers to authorize different degrees of
access for each CD-ROM deposited with the Library: a publisher
may authorize the Library to offer a specific CD-ROM on a local
area network for up to five simultaneous users in five different
reading rooms, or the publisher may sign an alternate agreement
that will allow access only at two different stand-alone
workstations.
The third document is to be completed by Library of Congress
patrons when downloading or copying material from a CD-ROM.
This document acknowledges use of material for research purposes
and prohibits wholesale downloading or further electronic
dissemination of search results by the user.
The fourth document announces general Library policy
regarding use of CD-ROMs.
According to Carol Risher, Vice President for Copyright of
the Association of American Publishers, "This historic event
serves as a model for cooperation between government and the
private sector, as together we face the challenges and promises
of new information technologies."
Initially, CD-ROMs deposited under the new agreements will
be available for public use in the Machine Readable Collections
Reading Room, Room G22 of the Library of Congress Thomas
Jefferson Building. Reading room hours are Monday-Friday, 12
noon to 4 p.m.
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PR 93-120
9/28/93
ISSN 0731-3527