Some Common Misconceptions about Electronic Deposit

Legal deposit is the National Library's primary mechanism for acquiring publications issued in Canada. At present, it is still being determined whether current legal deposit legislation can be interpreted as covering networked electronic publications or whether amendments to the National Library Act will be required. The main advantage of extending legal deposit to network publishing is that it gives NLC the legal authority to acquire electronic publications for the national collection.

The NLC recognizes that there are inherent problems in applying a Canadian law like legal deposit in an international communications medium that does not necessarily recognize jurisdictional borders. For example, what would define a publisher as 'Canadian' or a network site as 'Canadian' given the ease with which networked sites can be mirrored and networked publications can be copied (i.e. many resources at a Canadian site may not be Canadian in origin) and given the volatility of network addresses (i.e. a document hosted at a Canadian site can be easily transferred to non-Canadian sites which are outside the jurisdiction of Canadian laws).

The NLC is not merely collecting 'content'. The Library's mandate is to collect 'the thing itself', in whatever format the document circulates in public. Further, the NLC's mandate for accessibility is focused on providing information about publications in Canada. While the actual legislation pertaining to legal deposit does not extend to the providing access to the publication itself, the Library's raison d'être as a national agency is to provide as wide access as possible. Accordingly, in many cases, the NLC has provided free public access to its archive of electronic publications over the Internet.

Effects On Copyright

Copyright protection in Canada is automatic upon the creation of a given work, regardless of the medium of its creation, and it lasts until fifty years after the creator's death. Depositing an electronic publication with the NLC does not affect copyright one way or the other, but in the event that someone contests your copyright, it may prove useful to have deposited an electronic document with the NLC, because such deposit could help to establish the date at which your document was created. For more information on copyright, visit the Web Site of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

Lesley Ellen Harris, author of Canadian Copyright Law, maintains Copyrightlaws.com, a Web Site devoted to international copyright law, digital property, media, and other intellectual property issues, which publishers may find useful and informative.

Effects on Distribution and Salability

Some publishers have found that placing deposited electronic publications in the online section of the NLC's collection actually increases the profile of that publication, and creates sales of both print and digital publications. Publishers who are concerned about the time-sensitivity of their publications may wish to arrange with the NLC to have their electronically deposited publications stored offline for an initial period of negotiable length.