Libraries and the Dadvsi law : surviving a seismic debate

The text which transposes the European directive on the harmonization of certain aspects of authors' rights and neighbouring rights in the information society (Dadvsi), adopted on 12 October 2003 by the French government, would appear to be an open and shut case. However, the inter-association of archivists, librarians, documentalists and two associations of local government officials have expressed their support for a more equitable solution. When the parliamentary debate opened at the end of 2005 their proposals were the subject of some twenty amendments put down by Deputies of all political tendencies. The author of the article recalls the lively discussions which followed in the Assembly and then in the Senate; and some of the lessons learnt on the action of lobbying in the public interest.
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