Intellectual Property

Ownership of digital content, rights of access, and mechanisms for regulating the use of digital content have played a major role in the development of digital libraries. Copyright laws of most countries were not written to take into account the existence of digital information on the Internet. The Open Access movement has encouraged authors, especially those in the research and education communities, to license their works in a way that encourages their broad use. Digital rights management systems are put in place to protect content from use beyond those specifically licensed to a user or group. This is a contentious area and CNI provides a forum for airing views and principles and for better understanding the way forward.