Legal Problems Of Long-term Preservation Of Digital Resources

Compared to other types of resources,digital resources are easily lost and damaged,because the storage media of digital resources are easily damaged.Once the storage media suffer from heat,humidity, contamination,and magnetic field interference,or the reading facilities of the storage media break down,the digital resources will be lost.Kuny has pointed out that we are in a Digital Dark Age,so we should seek a "monk" in digital era to preserve the historical and cultural heritage.The advance of technologies does not only promote,the development of human civilization,but also brings many legal challenges to the long-term preservation of digital resources.Nowadays,who are in charge of long-term preservation of digital resources? Which policies or systems can ensure that digital resources can be legally deposited to the designated preservation organizations? There are lots of limitations and exceptions for the utilization of digital resources.In this situation,how do the preserved resources serve the public? The above problems attract the author's attention and make the author do research on "The Rights Problems of Long-term Preservation of Digital Resources".Who will be the "monk" in digital era? In the past,libraries,archives, museums took the responsibility of preservation,because they were endowed with corresponding rights.But in digital era,the forms of resources are very complicated.After introducing the concepts of digital resources and long-term preservation,this paper analyzes the preservation scope of digital resources,and then puts emphasis on the limitations and exceptions for the legal deposit system of digital resources,and finally,this paper mentions the establishment of service right.The legal deposit system is the basis for the long-term preservation of digital resources.Legal deposit system is a kind of document construction system,including laws and regulations for legal deposit,the subjects, objects,quantities,and manners of legal deposit,utilizations of the publications and so on.The legal deposit system helps libraries and other related organizations collect the publications published in the homeland, preserve cultural heritage,quickly announce the publication situation of literature,and compile national and local publication catalogues.As the basis of long-term preservation of digital resources,there have not been corresponding polices or systems to bind the publishers in China,so in this paper,the author analyzes the problems of legal deposit system in China, does comparative study on the legal deposit system home and abroad,and finally,according to the update developments of legal deposit system home and abroad,the author definitely points out the subjects of legal deposit, and proposes some suggestions for improving the current legal deposit system in China,such as changing the mechanism and manners of legal deposit,enlarging the scope of legal deposit,using rights protection and compensation mechanism,and so on.Limitations and exceptions are the guarantee for long-term preservation of digital resources.At present,in order to protect the rights of the works' owners,Copyright Law and Ordinance on the Protection of the Right to Network Dissemination of Information propose many limitations for utilization of the works.But for long-term preservation,preservation organizations use some advanced technologies to copy data,such as technological emulation,transfer,etc,and use data management module to maintain the sustainability and accessibility of the storage data.However, at present,there is lack of legal guarantee system for long-term preservation of digital resources home and abroad,and there are only some articles,which provide "exceptions" for the copying actions of the preservation organizations,such as libraries,archives,etc.Balancing the gain and lost between copyright and preservation management right becomes the key to long-term preservation of digital resources.By learning the practical experiences of legislation in foreign countries,this paper proposes the establishment of the system for long-term preservation of digital resources,and solves the related rights problems through legislation.Finally,this paper discusses the ultimate goal of long-term preservation of digital resources,i.e.service.In order to protect the rights of copyright owners,maintain the operation of digital resources and information service market,and maintain the dissemination of digital resources and the development of information service,we need to balance the rights of many parties,so as to find out the balance point.In a sense,it is a special case to provide service by using the preserved digital resources, so the scope,object,time and space of service right are restricted by laws and other factors.The goal of this paper is to construct a right management system for long-term preservation of digital resources in China,which will balance the rights of many parties involved in long-term preservation of digital resources.Certainly,the research on the rights problems of long-term preservation of digital resources will also take great place along with the development of information technology and the change of social environment.The development of information technology does not only bring convenience for long-term preservation of digital resources,but also sets up many obstacles and proposes many more challenges,so we need new polices and legal guarantee system on and on,so as to make the long-term preservation of digital resources develop smoothly and preserve valuable digital resources for the future generations.