Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000

Tabnabs

In work, we got a "threatening" letter from the British Library informing us we must under the above act deposit our publication with them. It's a very small and humble booklet/double sided folding sheet about our business.

I thought there must be some mistake, but looked up the act and it seems Irish publishers and distributors (in our case) are legally obliged to forward these to an assortment of Irish and UK libraries
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2000/en/act/pub/0028/sec0198.html#partii-chapxxii

But only the British Library seem to have a keen interest and have sent a Serial Claim Letter.

So my question really is why would there be such an onus on an Irish publisher or distributor to send their publications to the UK?

dermot_sheehan

there's a similar obligation in UK law for UK publishers to deposit a copy with Trinity College Dublin
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/28/section/14

Many countries have similar laws requiring deposits of published books in national libraries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_deposit

I suspect the theory is that since copyright stops the unauthorised republication of work, the publisher ought to supply copies to be kept by national institutions so that the work isnt lost if there is no reprinting and all the privately held copies are lost or destroyed.

Furthermore it ensures that a person can use their right to copy the book when the copyright eventually expires.