Charles A. Masango

Understanding copyright in support of scholarship: Some possible challenges to scholars and academic librarians in the digital environment?

This paper examines the rationale for copyright and how the copyright exemption of the law promotes scholarship. It examines the possible challenges that may be faced by scholars and academic librarians in implementing the copyright fair dealing exemption in the digital environment following that digital information is protected by copyright law and licensing agreements. The paper attempts to propose possible measures that could be implemented for copyright exceptions to better function and promote scholarship in the digital environment.

Libraries Driving Access to Knowledge: a discussion paper

Libraries are critical contributors to knowledge generation. The paper provides a brief examination of the evolution of libraries and their contribution to literacy and information provision and access to that information. However, the mode of access has significantly changed, which has brought with it a different set of challenges. These include, among others, the dismantling of barriers to access in an era of information explosion and the moral obligation to drive access to knowledge and information. This paper was prepared as a discussion document for the Presidentelects Brainstorming Session held at the recent IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Québec City, Canada on 12 August 2008.

Digital licence agreements and their effects on acquisitions and academic library users

The article examines the origin of print media copyright law and the fair dealing exemptions. It analyses whether the globally accepted assumptions that the print media fair dealing exemption is appropriate in the digital environment notwithstanding that corporate rights holders of online databases have introduced licences to govern the use of digital content. The article discusses the effects on acquisitions and academic library users of incorporating the print media fair dealing exemption in the digital licensing agreements.

The future of the first sale doctrine with the advent of licences to govern access to digital content

The article examines the origin of copyright and the first sale doctrine. It exposes the advantages that the doctrine confers to the purchasers of copyright works and how it is possible for purchasers to use the doctrine to advance scholarship. The article also examines whether the advantages that the doctrine confers to the purchasers of printed copyright works has been permanently swept away by the introduction of licences by authors to govern access to digital content. Finally, the article looks at content access models being used in the digital environment that may ultimately serve the same function as that played by the first sale doctrine in the previous offline-only, hard-copy environment.

Documenting indigenous knowledge about Africa's complementary and alternative medicine : a cause for concern?

This article explores the global debates concerning documenting indigenous knowledge (IK) about Africa’s complementary and alternative medicine (e-ACAM). The article further explores whether it is possible to document both the common and uncommon knowledge about e-ACAM given that the uncommon knowledge of e-ACAM is practised secretly as it is a source of livelihood for traditional medicine practices. The framework presented in the article stems from the notion that the ethnopharmacological information of medicinal plants is fast disappearing and in view of the rapid loss of such knowledge, its documentation as well as a better understanding of its botanico-historical roots has become an essential task. With further theoretical research it is revealed that the uncommon aspect of e-ACAM may be difficult or impossible to document as it encompasses secret knowledge. The article proposes measures within intellectual property rights (IPR) in the form of patents that could be implemented in order to document those types of e-ACAM that embrace secrecy and are a source of livelihood for traditional medicine practices.

Traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions protections prospects in Cameroon

This paper is located within global debates about intellectual property. International agencies, mindful that third world/developing world resources are being appropriated by global corporate bodies, seek to intervene to protect countries that are unable to fend off the often subtle alienation of their national and natural assets. In this context, the cultural and intellectual resources of countries, peoples, communities and other collectives have become the subject of policy regulation. This paper focuses on policies developed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). WIPO attempts to protect Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs) (folklore) against misappropriation and misuse. In this paper, the question asked is whether it is possible or desirable to protect all types of TK and TCEs that are constituent elements of indigenous knowledge and uses the case of Cameroon to provide examples to assist with answering these questions. It is argued that in some cases, it may be both possible and desirable, but that in other cases, there are constraints, as knowledge is secret or sacred. When such knowledge is not in the public domain it cannot be protected. Seeking to protect these types of expression and knowledge might, indeed, endanger them by removing them from the very context which provides their status as indigenous knowledge.

Law library collection development in the digital age(A monograph published simultaneously as the Legal Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 21, Nos. 2/3 and4, 2002). Edited by Michael Chiorazzi and Gordon Russell

The topical issue facing libraries and librarians nowadays is how to collect, preserve and provide information that is needed by its 21st century users. The question of access versus ownership of information seems to be aggravating concerns of the custodians of information in libraries (especially law libraries) as they are faced with two distinct types of information sources that are pertinent to their users, viz. print and digital.