A new copyright for digital libraries?

The introduction of new technologies has seen the development of new media for works protected by copyright. Italian legislation and, generally speaking, European laws, vary according to the medium of the work (paper, audiocassette, videocassette, radio/TV, etc). Rights, the duration of copyright protection, and procedures for copying are all different. New media can create difficulties: for example, new formats are conceived they evolve rapidly, and there are issues regarding their diffusion and their transnational character. National legislators have therefore preferred to wait before regulating the field, while considering international developments deriving from several international conventions intended to regulate the subject, particularly with the creation of the European Common Market and of the European Union. The absence of legislation has led to an extended use of analogy, of reference to the general criteria of the legal system and - to a greater extent - of licences. Dealing with an electronic or multimedia work creates totally new problems both for professionals and end-users. Interlinks, duplication or cloning, and off-site access introduce a series of new cases which are not always easy to resolve. It has been suggested that it will be necessary to introduce new rules which are totally different from existing legal provisions on copyright. However, the need for new rules has been recognised - both at national and international levels - within the existing framework of copyright legislation. This possibility has been taken up at international level by WIPO with the Copyright Treaty and, in Europe, by including software regulations about copyright. Italian national legislation, as in other European countries, covers the protection of any creative work whatever its former medium of presentation. By virtue of this 'open ended' provision, all electronic works can be considered to be covered by copyright. This is important, since copyright not only covers authors' rights but also establishes some exceptions in favour of libraries and end-users, reflecting the 'dualism' of copyright and meeting the deeply felt need for the widest possible circulation of culture and information, without necessarily being subject to payment. New technologies not only define a 'new' copyright, but also a new role for libraries. In Italy, as in so many other countries, there is no unambiguous definition of a library; the definition is only possible through analysis of the services offered by an organisation perceived to be a library.