The IFLA Position on Public Lending Right [2005]

IFLA's long held position on copyright and related rights is that the economic rights of information providers must be balanced against society's need to gain access to knowledge. The onward and consistent expansion of copyright and related rights into new arenas has led to the increased use of licensing, extending to more and more activities such as 'lending right', which this paper addresses. IFLA believes that unless great care is taken to preserve and indeed vigorously uphold the exceptions and limitations to copyright throughout the world to maintain this balance, this trend will in due course impact in a profoundly negative way on education and research and its outcome, which is the cultural, scientific and economic progress of individuals, and of nations and society, affecting in particular the economies of developing countries.