Prevention of copyright crisis in libraries
1. Ideological precautions
Self-discipline can make libraries better. The prerequisite for preventing crises is to improve the copyright awareness and ability of librarians and readers to protect copyright through various channels and forms, that is, to improve self-discipline. For example, since 2005, Lingnan University has promoted copyright knowledge among freshmen every year, listed infringements, and asked all students to pay attention. Practice has proven that carrying out copyright education among librarians and readers can effectively avoid infringement incidents and copyright crises. While raising the awareness of librarians and readers about copyright protection, it is also necessary to strengthen the education of copyright crisis awareness and the cultivation of a correct and complete crisis outlook. Crisis education should focus on the universality of the objects, the pertinence of the content and the long-term nature of the process. It should enhance librarians’ psychological preparation and knowledge reserves for copyright crises through expert demonstrations, scenario simulation training, case studies and other methods, and improve the handling of crises. ability.
2. Organizational prevention
Research shows that the library crisis management team (LCMT) plays a unique and important role. In a legal environment where copyright protection is becoming increasingly strong, libraries in our country should establish a standing crisis management group with the librarian's responsibility system as the core, or include its functions in the overall crisis management organization of the library, but there should be specialized personnel to take charge of this work. For example, the library of Michigan State University in the United States has a copyright librarian position. The curator (deputy curator) is the "chief crisis officer" and bears an unshirkable responsibility in copyright crisis management. Copyright crisis management involves different professional fields, so libraries should also hire experts in law, technology, public relations, management, etc. to establish a crisis management consulting organization to provide consulting and decision-making services for crisis management. The crisis management organization cannot be just a decoration, or only activated when a crisis arrives, but measures should be taken to normalize and standardize its operations.
3. System prevention
We cannot completely blame the copyright crisis on the unreasonableness of the law, let alone the selfish desires of the rights holders, but we should first review it. Whether our actions are reasonable and legal. Behavior must be adjusted by the system. The lack and imperfection of the system are important hidden dangers of the copyright crisis. To prevent copyright crises, we must implement the idea of ??crisis management at the institutional level. Libraries need to gradually establish and improve copyright crisis prevention systems, including: "Library Copyright Policy", "Library Collection Copyright Defect Prevention and Identification System", "Library Use Copyright Authorization Agreement Signing System", "Copyright Protection Warning for Readers Using Collection Resources" System", "Library Fee Service Cost Accounting System", "Library Collection Copyright Status Evaluation System", "Library Copyright Crisis Responsibility Identification System", etc.
4. Mechanism prevention
In order to achieve the desired results in copyright crisis management, several scientific, correct and efficient response mechanisms must be established: ①Planning mechanism. Copyright crisis management is based on a complete response plan (emergency plan), with the purpose of predicting, supervising, controlling and coordinating crisis events that may occur or have already occurred. In the international library community, crisis preparedness plans are receiving more and more attention, and the plans of the Oxford University Library, the National Library of Australia, and the Harvard University Library all have their own characteristics. ②Early warning mechanism. Accurate prediction is the first step in crisis management. Based on experience and lessons, a library crisis early warning system should be established to analyze the possible causes and methods of copyright crises, carry out advance management, and reduce the suddenness and unexpectedness of crises. ③Cooperation mechanism. Each library itself lacks all types of necessary resources (talent, technology, information, etc.) to deal with the copyright crisis. It is necessary to solve this problem through maximum sharing of resources on the basis of cooperation. ④Technical mechanism. Technology can not only protect copyright, but is also protected by copyright law. Libraries must technically fulfill their obligations to protect copyright, which is also one of the important exemption conditions stipulated by the law. Elimination of library copyright crisis
1. Frontal response, rapid response
The suddenness and strong spread of the crisis determine that crisis response must be rapid and decisive. Because the destructiveness of crises tends to explode non-linearly over time. It is generally believed that "24 hours" is the limit of crisis response speed, and the "24 hours" rule must be followed in handling crises. After a crisis occurs, the library cannot take chances and allow the situation to develop, or adopt inertial thinking, dragging its feet, taking things slowly, and strive to be stable. The crisis management team should intervene in the crisis in the shortest possible time, control the situation, and reduce losses. In the case of Du Xiuxian v. National Library of China over copyright infringement, the National Library adopted a preemptive strategy, took prompt action, actively communicated with the parties involved, and expressed its hope for a peaceful solution to the problem, which ultimately resolved the crisis.
2 Treat each other with sincerity and negotiate with each other
In the copyright infringement case between Li Changkui v. Qingdao University of Science and Technology, the library of Qingdao University of Science and Technology, as the only defendant, took the approach of treating each other with sincerity. attitude, and worked hard to mediate, leading to Li Changkui negotiating a settlement agreement with Chaoxing Company, and causing Li Changkui to withdraw the lawsuit.
Treating each other with sincerity is an important principle in handling crises. After a copyright crisis occurs, libraries must show sincerity in solving the problem, think about the problem from the other party's perspective, and express sympathy and comfort to the parties involved regardless of the cause of the crisis and where the responsibility lies. In addition, the handling of copyright crises must not only focus on solving direct interest issues, but also adopt appropriate emotional communication strategies based on the psychological characteristics of the parties to solve their deep-seated psychological and emotional problems, which will help resolve the crisis.
3. The media is friendly and guides public opinion
The essence of the Sutu Incident revolves around the inconsistency between the reasonable use provisions of copying rights in our country’s copyright system and the relevant provisions in the cultural relics protection regulations. Disputes, especially over the copyright ownership of rare books and readers’ rights to copy. In this incident, traditional media and online media pushed the library to the forefront of public opinion. Adopting media-friendly strategies in a crisis can defuse the media's excessive attention to crisis events, gradually direct the media's attention to other aspects, so that negative reports slowly subside, or create a new focus to turn media public opinion, and can also fight against noise , explain the reasons, and turn advantages into disadvantages. In crisis management, libraries cannot adopt an "ostrich policy" and deliberately avoid the media. Instead, they must prepare sufficient materials to respond to media visits, avoid challenging the media, and unify the caliber of information release. In daily work, libraries should establish long-term cooperative relationships with the media and continuously deepen friendship.
4. Guard the bottom line and defend reasonably
In the cases of Fan Yuanwu v. Shanghai Library, Tsinghua University, and Tsinghua Tongfang Optical Disc Co., Ltd., and Yin Zhiqiang v. Jinling Library copyright infringement disputes In the case, the library made reasonable defenses and received full support from the court. Reasonable defense is an important way to solve library digital copyright issues. In dealing with the copyright crisis, libraries must adhere to the "core position" rule and the "highest interest" rule, remain unswerving on principled issues involving the interests of libraries and readers, and actively defend and strive for the greatest rights and interests.
5. Seek intervention and authoritative support.
In the process of handling the crisis, libraries should focus on seeking third party intervention (third party in tervention). "Third parties" are often the library's superior leadership departments, library academic groups and experts in related fields. The purpose of third-party intervention in copyright crises is to play a role in catalysis, coordination and recognition. As far as the current situation of libraries in my country is concerned, in the role of a third party, the "Library Law and Intellectual Property Research Professional Committee" affiliated to the Library Society of China should actively intervene in the library's copyright crisis management and exert its authority.
6. Respect the facts and take responsibility
Experts point out that the basic advice in crisis management is to admit mistakes and try not to show too much self-protection and shirk responsibility. After the copyright crisis occurs, in the face of criticism from rights holders, libraries should not try to evade responsibility, but should take seriously the rights holders' demands and losses, no matter how small, and put the interests of the rights holders in an important position. The library must promptly apologize to the rights holder and make reasonable compensation to them after identifying the problem. Otherwise, the library may suffer greater losses. In the case of Lou Shibai v. Xiangtan City Library, the library lost the case and was ordered to compensate the plaintiff 600,000 yuan. This is an example.
7. Deal with the aftermath and rebuild the image
There is a wise saying in crisis management, that is, the most dangerous and easiest time to make mistakes often seems to be in the past, but in fact it has not yet passed. when. ?After the crisis gradually eases or resolves, libraries cannot heal the scars and forget about the pain. Instead, they must organize and carry out crisis learning based on the impact of the crisis on the psychology of librarians and the image of the library, conduct an in-depth analysis of the causes of the crisis, and summarize the responses. Experience and lessons learned from the crisis, and carry out reforms in management, technology, organization, mechanism and team building, reader education, etc., to improve the library's ability and level of copyright protection. In this way, crises can be turned into opportunities, reshape the library's image of respecting knowledge creation and safeguarding copyright, and avoid the recurrence of crises.