This study focuses on the Nordic model of Extended Collective Licenses (ECL) and how this model can be used in the process of digitalising and publishing archival material such as photos, letters, maps or films. The question that this study aims to deal with is what advantages, and disadvantages, there are for archives and copyright holders when an ECL is being used. To help answering this question the ‘theory of the knowledge commons’ has been applied. The research question has been answered through a text analysis based on legal texts including Swedish law. To get a wider perspective, international literature such as official and law-binding documents from the Nordic countries and the European Union have also been consulted. Policies and contributions to the debate about making cultural heritage available online have also been included to give light to the complexity of the question. In 2013 the Swedish copyright law was changed to facilitate for certain archives and libraries to sign an agreement with a so called Collective Administration Organization (CAO). There are no examples of ECLs being used by Swedish archives for classical archival materials even if the possibility to draw up this type of agreements has existed since 2005. One of the reasons might be the complexity of the law and that the archival institutions have problems of interpreting it. The institutions often avoid providing access to their materials online or choose material they know is in the public domain already. Finding copyright holders before publishing material online is time-consuming. One of the major advantages of functional ECLs is that they save time and resources – both for the archival institutions and the copyright holders. The ECLs provide an opportunity for the archival institutions to share their collections with the public and the copyrights holders get an organized way to communicate their terms and conditions. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 148-155). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This thesis deals with the way in which copyright law is changing in the digital environment and the mechanisms which are facilitating this change. It deals with these issues by analysing the mechanisms of this change, specifically Digital Rights Management (DRM)Systems and anti-circumvention legislation, and the impact which this change is having on the rights of copyright users. The purpose of copyright is to provide an incentive to authors to continue creating while simultaneously providing a public good in allowing the public to use those creations in certain ways. Copyright achieves this purpose by granting both the author and user certain rights. The author is given a limited monopoly over their work in exchange for allowing this work to enter the public sphere and ensuring that users of that work can utilise that work in certain limited ways. The success of copyright thus rests on maintaining the balance between the rights of these parties. The rise of digital technology has created a situation in which copyright content can be easily copied by any party with a Personal Computer and disseminated around the globe instantly via the Internet. In response to these dangers, copyright owners are making use of DRM systems to protect content. DRM systems include various measures of control within its scope. Theses systems allow for copyright owners to control both access and use of content by copyright users. DRM Systems are not foolproof measures of protection however. Technologically sophisticated users are able to circumvent these protection measures. Thus, in order to protect DRM Systems from circumvention, anti-circumvention legislation has been proposed through international treaties and adopted in many countries. The combined effect of these protection measures are open to abuse by copyright owners and serve to curtail the limited rights of copyright users. The end result of this is that the balance which copyright law was created to maintain is disrupted and copyright law no longer fulfils its purpose. This thesis undertakes an analysis of these issues with reference to how these issues affect copyright users in developing countries. This is done with particular reference to possible approaches to this issue in South Africa as South Africa is a signatory to these anti-circumvention treaties.