Legal aspects of usage out-of-commerce works by libraries and other institutions

Abstract

Keywords: copyright; out-of-commerce works; cultural heritage institutions; exceptionsand limitation; representative organizations of collective management
 The article is devoted to the study of the norms of Directive2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright and relatedrights in the Digital Single Market, such as provisions on the permitted use of worksout-of-commercial circulation, that are permanently in the collections of libraries andothers cultural heritage institutions. The norms of this EU Directive, as well as theprovisions defined in the laws of some European countries, are analyzed in detail.The main provisions of the EU Directive are considered, which provide for a doublemechanism of permitted use of works of cultural heritage institutions: main and reserve.The essence of each mechanism is considered in detail.The article also considers the question of when the rights holders have the right torefuse, meaning not to allow cultural heritage institutions to use out-of-commerce works.A comparison is made between the norms of the legislation of Ukraine on copyrightand related rights concerning the free use of works by libraries and other culturalheritage institutions and the relevant norms of European legislation. It is establishedthat in the legislation of Ukraine the list of institutions that have the right tofreely reproduce works is limited only to libraries and archives. Unlike the provisionsof the EU Directive, norms of national legislation do not apply to museums, film andaudio funds. However, free reproduction is allowed only by reprographic method (photocopying)of copies, which restrains the possibility of freeing reproduction (digitization)of works using modern digital technologies.It is concluded that classical norms of the legislation on copyright and relatedrights with the development of relations in the digital environment are changing.Legislators are constantly searching for optimal ways to balance public and privateinterests. Whether the new rules will be successful depends on how states implementthe rules of the EU Directive in state law and how they will be applied in practice.