I'm currently writing something on the electronic legal deposit legislation right now (and its implications for publishers) and would appreciate any comments from publishers (or from others about what they see as the implications for publishers). The URL inserted by Steve below has some interesting comments, but it is not clear whose words they are: does anyone know?
Any comments can be either on or off the record as is preferred. (And I hope Stevan doesn't slap my wrist for a posting what he may feel is off topic here!) Thanks. Richard Poynder Freelance Journalist www.richardpoynder.com In this context there may be some interest in the announcement on Friday October 31 that the UK Government passed the Legal Deposit Act extending to digital publications. The actual Act is at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmbills/026/03026.1-6.html and the British Library press release is at http://www.bl.uk/cgi-bin/press.cgi?story=1382 It is also worth noting the comments of Anthony Watkinson, a publisher with experience of these processes: > It is probable that the statutory > instruments next year will start with off-line but on-line will follow > quite soon and (although web-site sampling is part of the picture) it > is scholarly e-journals that are of main interest i.e. publications. To > my mind e-only journals are the most important though the normative > e-version of journals available in print also are diverging from print > and thus become more important to preserve. There are still some practical issues to resolve, not least because the Government department involved only revealed the draft very late in the day "to the fury and exasperation of the library and publishing sectors", relating to omissions in earlier readings: http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:iFKXGxJB6NcJ:www.alpsp.org/news/LegDep15-6-03.pdf+uk+legal+deposit+act&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 But the thrust of the bill towards publications is clear.