While the original objective of legal deposit legislation was to improve the development and the preservation of a "royal" or "national" collection, it gained other purposes over the years. As an example, Crews reports that in France, "In 1617, deposit became a prerequisite to obtaining trade privileges."10 It has also been used as a surveillance tool, even in certain cases as a means of censorship. While François I had been the first to implement a comprehensive legal deposit system aimed at collecting and preserving published material for future generations, ecclesiastical authorities had a form of deposit system since the early days of printing. But the objective of this system was to watch and control the material published to ensure that religious principles were respected, since there were religious conflicts in France at that time. As well, the 1661 Sweden edict clearly stated that "it appears appropriate and useful that His Majesty should be informed of all the books and the writings printed in his kingdom."11 Another interesting example is presented by Napoleon, who in 1810 amended the French legal deposit law to have the deposit copies sent to the Ministry of Police so that the surveillance of the press would be easier.12 Finally, it should be noted that in Finland, "censorship and supervision were aspects that remained associated with the legislation for a surprisingly long time. Indeed, the Freedom of the Press Act of 1919 still stated that, for these reasons, printers were ordered to submit an extra legal deposit copy to the Ministry of Justice. Formally the statute is still in force, as it was not repealed when the present Legal Deposit Act was passed in 1980 and the legal deposit provisions were removed from the Freedom of the Press Act."13

Legal deposit became closely related to copyright during the 18th century, when deposit became a formality for obtaining the legal protection of copyright. It all started with the Statute of Anne, the Great Britain Copyright Act of 1709, which was the first law aimed at protecting authors from piracy of their works. The law required that nine copies of works be deposited and distributed to several libraries in order to obtain copyright protection. In the United States, a requirement for legal deposit was first established as part of the 1790 Copyright Act and, as already mentioned France implemented a copyright deposit requirement in 1793.

When the Berne Convention was implemented in 1886, most countries had to modify their legal deposit system. Since the Convention clearly stated that the enjoyment and the exercise of the right to protection of literary and artistic work shall not be subject to any formality,14 legal deposit as a requirement to obtain copyright protection had to be abolished. Except for a few countries, such as Belgium, most countries retained deposit as a legal requirement through another means, such as a specific law on legal deposit. In 1938, the Institut international de coopération intellectuelle of Paris identified 52 countries that had a legal deposit system in place, through a law or another legal means such as a decree, an edict, an order or a regulation.15 Fifty years later, in 1990, Jasion surveyed 139 countries having a formal legal deposit system in one form or another.16

Over the history of legal deposit, requirements evolved and the legal texts were amended accordingly to adapt the system to the development of new means and types of publishing. New types of documents, such as audio-visual materials, were added; the number of requested copies was modified; and responsibility for receiving, recording and making available the deposit collections was shifted to another institution. As well, the objectives of legal deposit evolved over the years. In addition to the original aim of François I, which was to preserve the books for future generations, new objectives were added during the 20th century, such as the constitution of a national bibliography and the availability for research purposes of a collection of the nation's published material.

In recent years, many countries have been examining their legislation in order to address the issues raised by electronic publications. These issues represent the biggest challenge that legal deposit has ever had to face because of the incredible complexity of legal, organizational, technical and operational aspects related to the implementation of a legal deposit scheme for electronic publications.

Already some countries are involved in acquiring, recording and preserving on-line electronic material at a national level, even if a formal legal obligation is not yet in place because of all the technical and organizational problems. As an example, an ever-increasing number of electronic publications, including e-journals, are now accessible through the website of the National Library of Canada. The Library has negotiated individual agreements in order to have the material deposited on a voluntary basis and to have it available without restrictions. In Germany, the Deutsche Bibliothek is also collecting on-line documents through individual negotiations with the publishers, since there is no legal provision for depositing on-line material. But in certain cases, such as Denmark (1997), Finland (2000), France (1992), Norway (1994) and South Africa (1997), electronic publications have been specifically incorporated within legal deposit legislation, even if in most cases the legislation addresses only off-line material.

It must be noted that whereas certain legal deposit legislation does include electronic publications, the systematic acquisition, recording and availability mechanisms are not necessarily all in place and operational. Reports from the countries involved indicate that off-line electronic publications (i.e. the ones available on a physical support) do not create major problems, but the legal deposit of on-line material presents substantial challenges that will require a great deal of technical and legal expertise as well as close Cupertino with the information producers. Legal deposit of dynamic electronic material, such as on-line databases, and publications only available through the Internet, is raising serious copyright problems as well as authentication and preservation issues. Following years of research and discussion, several projects are now in progress. A good example is a pilot project in the Netherlands, which has a voluntary deposit system, based on agreements with publishers. A pilot project was undertaken in 1996 by which the publishers Elsevier and Kluwer submit all journals available in electronic format with a Netherlands imprint. As an underlying principle, both parties agreed on an "on-site access" by which registered readers of the Dutch national library have access to e-journals. It was also agreed that remote-access experimentation would take place. This project, known as the NEDLIB Project since January 1998, has expanded to include 12 European partners aimed at becoming a "Networked European Deposit Library."

5. C. Fournier, "Le dépôt légal" (1993) 39:2 Documentation et bibliothèques, 96
6. Josef Brock, "Le dépôt légal, hier et aujourd'hui" 1977:3 IFLA Journal, 62.
7. Jan T. Jasion, The International Guide to Legal Deposit (Aldershot, Ashgate, 1991) at 117.
8. Le dépôt légal : son organisation et son fonctionnement dans les divers pays (Paris, Institut international de coopération intellectuelle, 1938) at 9.
9. Richard Bell, "Legal deposit in Britain (Part 1)" (1977) 8:1 Law Librarian, 5.
10. Kenneth Crews, "Legal deposit in four countries: laws and library services" (1988) 80 Law Library Journal, 551-576.
11. Ibid. at 553.
12. Ibid.
13. Esko Häkli, "Reform of the Finnish Legal Deposit Act" (1999) 1 Tietolinja News, 1.
14. Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, September 9, 1886, Can. T.S. 1998 No. 18, art. 5(2).
15. Supra note 8, at 19.
16. Supra note 7, at 18-31.