Libraries in the digital renaissance law and policy for book digitization

Defence date: 21 December 2017Examining Board: Professor Giovanni Sartor, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Giorgio Monti, European University Institute; Professor Lionel Bently, University of Cambridge; Professor Pamela Samuelson, University of California, BerkeleyFirst made available online in Open Access on 27 September 2021This dissertation examines the phenomenon of book digitization and the legal challenges for the creation of digital libraries. It explores whether the current copyright framework supports libraries in the digital era as they strive to remain the institutional guardians of our literary treasures. The thesis hypothesis is that the current framework is unsuccessful or inadequate in supporting libraries. To test this hypothesis and identify the legal inefficacies the dissertation examines context, i.e. the history and rationale for applying copyright rules to books and libraries, the copyright rules as applied to libraries before and after digitization was possible, various digitization projects and the practical challenges that digitization brought about, and, the relevant litigation which has started on both sides of the Atlantic covering over a decade now. Furthermore, the thesis explores normative directions of copyright rules, including their exceptions, applicable to libraries in the digital era. It ultimately proposes that among various players claiming this role, libraries, given their institutional functions and capabilities, should be attributed rights to digitization and a favorable legal framework for providing access to digital material.Chapter 'A timeline of digitization initiatives and the relevant case-law affecting digital libraries' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'The role of judges in deciding the future of digital libraries' (2017) in the journal 'Global jurist