Keeping Within the Law

In the fast-moving digital world, keeping abreast of the law can be a tough job. The law on how information is stored and managed has had to adapt to an environment in which images can be easily copied and distributed, thousands of people can access online databases, and sensitive personal information is typically available at the click of a button. A complex area such as copyright law is under constant review, so it can be hard to know where the law stands on a particular issue.

But ignorance is not an option for information professionals. It is essential to have a good grasp of how legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act applies to the work of recording, archiving and retrieving information.

Knowing where to turn for up-to-date information and advice about the law isn’t easy. Information on legal matters is held in lots of different places, and laying your hands on a specific piece of case law or the minutes of a particular parliamentary committee can be a time-consuming business.

Facet Publishing has accordingly set up a website called Keeping Within the Law, or KWtL, that draws on a variety of sources to offer a comprehensive reference to copyright and information law.

Edited by Paul Pedley, head of research at the Economist Intelligence Unit, KWtL is a subscription site that brings together basic legal information, detailed case law and up-to-date news about relevant legal issues.

Does it deliver? On the whole, yes. The site is divided into four main legal categories: Copyright, Data Protection, Freedom of Information, and Other Legal Issues. That fourth category covers just about everything that doesn’t fall into the first three: legal deposit, disability discrimination, public lending rights, censorship, defamation, cybercrime, terrorism, human rights, and the reuse of public sector information.

Each of the four categories contains 10 subsections: Useful Resources, Subscriber-only News, Reference, Q&A, Legislation, Parliamentary Questions, Legal Cases, Factsheets, Presentations, and In-depth. There is also a blog, written by Pedley and updated several times a week, that covers what’s new in the legal world.
The subsections provide a good mix of resources; they offer everything from quick guides to the law for instant answers to detailed information on specific issues for those who need to know the nitty-gritty. Some of the sections, such as the Q&A, are written by Pedley himself, while others are drawn from other sources and republished under licence.

The Useful Resources subsection pulls together a range of resources from the web, such as surveys, government reports and best practice guidelines. Its coverage of copyright, for example, has links to a testimony on intellectual property before the US Senate’s Committee on the Judiciary, a House of Commons document on the work of the Copyright Tribunal, and the European Commission’s final report on digital preservation, orphan works and out-of-print material.

Documents in the Factsheets subsection are intended as brief guides to important topics. Some are sourced externally while others are written by Pedley. The Freedom of Information category currently looks a little thin. It contains just two factsheets: one from CILIP entitled Freedom of Information and the Role of the Information Professional; the other one is by Pedley, and entitled Accessing European Union Documents. Copyright fares much better with 37 factsheets, while Data Protection has five.

The Copyright Q&As are good, and provide a selection of the kinds of questions people frequently ask, such as “Do we have to make a charge for copies made under library privilege?” and “Can a prescribed library convert a video into DVD format?” As far as I can judge as a non-lawyer, the answers are sound.
At the moment there is only a single question in the Freedom of Information Q &As, three in the Data Protection category, and two in Other Legal Issues category. Presumably these will be added to in time.

Similarly, when it comes to the Legal Cases subsection, the Copyright category has far more entries than the others. If they continue to be added to, they will prove an invaluable resource.

Booleans blanked
The site has a search function, which works quickly and efficiently. It doesn’t seem to allow Boolean operators, however, and there are glitches. A search on digital rights management turned up 105 results, but a search on DRM produced nothing at all.

The site is reasonably easy to navigate. The home page is a little cluttered, but once you understand the basic structure of four main categories with 10 subcategories, it’s not at all hard to find what you’re looking for.

Pedley’s text is well written and clearly expressed, although there are on occasion long pieces of text that could benefit from more paragraph breaks or bullet points.
As it stands, though, the site feels incomplete. There is a much more substantial body of information in the Copyright category than any of the other categories.
On the other hand, the information that is available is of a good quality. If the site continues to expand, it should ultimately serve as a one-stop shop for information professionals wanting to find legal information and advice relating to their work. n

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