The legal framework

The intervention will focus on the legal framework for access to scientific and technical information. It will outline the mechanism and function of copyright in original text information and the legal protection granted to the collection of facts, data and other scientific materials in electronic databases. An important issue in this regard is the relationship between technical protection measures (TPM) and digital rights management systems (DRMs) and the boundaries of exclusive protection as well as between techno-legal protection and economic marketing models. It will be argued that the current problems are much less the result of an ever-increasing legal protection than of an information policy which is largely influenced by technology and economic concers of global players. Indeed, copyright should neither be held responsible for, nor burdened with, unsolved issues of information policy. The textual version of this presentation at the Conference "Open Access to Scientific and Technical Information: State of the Art and Future Trends" (Paris, 23-24 January 2003) was published with the title 'The legal framework for access to STI' in "Information Services and Use" vol. 23 (2003), issue 2-3, p. 119-120