The Hurler On The Ditch

Libraries have warned that the rise of digital publishing may make it harder or even impossible to access items in their collections in the future...

...digital rights management (DRM) controls may block some legitimate uses, the British Library has said.

And there are fears that restricted works may not be safe for future generations if people can no longer unlock them when technology evolves...

..."As custodians of human memory, a number [of libraries] would keep digital works in perpetuity and may need to be able to transfer them to other formats in order to preserve them and make the content fully accessible and usable once out of copyright."...

...the British Library said DRM must not "exert excessive control on access to information".

"This will fundamentally threaten the longstanding and accepted concepts of fair dealing and library privilege and undermine, or even prevent, legitimate public good access."

Fair dealing and library privilege must be "re-interpreted and sustained for the digital age", it added.