7.1. Basic Principles

7.1.1. Legal deposit should be a statutory obligation. While feasible, a voluntary deposit system is not recommended.

7.1.2. Legal deposit should be established as a national responsibility. This principle should not prevent other jurisdictions within the national entity from developing their own internal legal deposit system if they have the legislative power to do so.

7.1.3. The national deposit collection should be the property of the state, and the depository should make every possible effort to keep the material received on deposit, considering its preservation responsibility.

7.1.4. Legal deposit should be based on the principle that any published material, in its broadest sense, that is made available to the public is subject to deposit unless specifically excluded in the law.

7.1.5. No compensation, financial or otherwise, should be granted to depositors.

7.1.6. Access to legal deposit collections should be free, both on the premises and through interlibrary loans. The request of reasonable administrative fees should not be considered as a breach of this principle.

7.1.7. The copyright act might need to be amended in order to allow reproduction of protected work for long-term preservation purposes. The derogation clause, while always feasible, is not recommended.

7.2. Legislation

7.2.1. The legislation could be a separate legal deposit law or part of another law, such as the national library act. If it is decided to make the legislation part of the copyright act, it should be made clear that there is no direct link between the deposit of copies and the granting of copyright.

7.2.2. The act should reflect all basic principles.

7.2.3. The objectives of legal deposit should be clearly stated in the law.

7.2.4. The law requiring legal deposit should be enforceable and include a fine structure for non-compliance.

7.2.5. The language of the law should be clear, accurate, concise and easy to read. Ambiguity and vagueness should be avoided.

7.2.6. The law should include clear definitions of the terms used in order to ensure that the intent of the legislator is understood.

7.3. Elements of Legal Deposit

7.3.1. Origin of the Publication

The origin or place of publication of each item should be the basic consideration of any legal deposit scheme. Authors, publishers, producers, distributors, printers and importers may be required to deposit copies.

Since a national law cannot be applied on an extraterritorial basis, material published or produced abroad by national citizens and publishers should be deposited on a voluntary basis by them or acquired through traditional acquisition means. For on-line electronic publications, the publication source should be identified by using the geographic location of the publishing or producing organization or individual.

7.3.2. Comprehensiveness

7.3.2.1. The definition of the material to be deposited should be as broad as possible in order to include all types of information carriers independent of the format.

7.3.2.2. All types of print material as well as audio-visual documents should be subject to legal deposit. Broadcast material, both radio and television, should be subject to legal deposit. The legislation should also cover electronic publications, both off-line and on-line, including multimedia networked publications, even if the national legal deposit agency is not yet in a position to collect such material. In this area, the law should remain as general as possible since technology evolves rapidly.

7.3.2.3. The basic criteria for being an object of legal deposit should be that the material is produced in multiple copies and made available to the public.

7.3.2.3.1. For on-line electronic publications, as well as radio and television programs, the only criterion should be accessibility to the public.

7.3.2.4. A legal deposit law should not be retroactive and the material published/produced prior to the entry into force of the law should be collected through voluntary deposit or traditional acquisition means.

7.3.2.5. Legal deposit legislation should be neutral as far as content of the material to be deposited is concerned. Therefore, any type of material corresponding to the basic criteria should be deposited disregarding any value judgement of the material, should it be of a moral, political, artistic or literary nature.

7.3.3. Depositor

7.3.3.1. The depositor should be the organization or the individual responsible for publishing/producing and making available the copies of a document. If it is decided to assign the deposit responsibility to the owner of the copyright, the law should be very explicit and clear on this matter. With on-line material, since there will be more and more individuals "publishing" or "producing" their own material, the legislation should include them as depositor.

7.3.4. Depository

7.3.4.1. The national library of the country, or any other national institution playing a similar role, should be the depository. Legal deposit may also be decentralized and involve other national agencies as depositories for more specialized material. In that case, there should be a statutory mechanism for the co-ordination of the various agencies responsible for legal deposit, and measures should be adopted to ensure that users have seamless access to the national published heritage in all media.

7.3.5. Number of Copies

7.3.5.1. At a minimum, two copies should be deposited, one for preservation and the other for use. But this number could vary depending on the national objectives of the scheme.

7.3.5.2. There could be an exception for certain types of material that is more expensive to produce and/or for which the market is more limited. In such cases, only one copy could be deposited

7.3.5.3. For electronic publications, the issue of the number of copies is replaced by the issue of the number of concurrent users of the product. The law should make it compulsory for the publisher/producer to provide access to a minimum of one user at a time.

7.3.6. Time of Deposit

7.3.6.1. There is no standard to follow, except that it should be as soon as possible after publication, preferably within one week but not later than four weeks.

7.4.1. Books
7.4.1.1. Books represent the basic object of legal deposit. The definition of what constitutes a book has to appear in the law and should be clear. Inclusions and exclusions should be defined. The minimum number of pages required and the minimum number of copies printed should be determined by the regulations.

The law should also specify that variations of a book, whether variations of content (other editions), language (translations) or form (trade, deluxe, pocket editions), should be deposited.

7.4.1.2. Books also published in electronic format, whether off-line or on-line, should be deposited. The way such material will be accessed should be carefully looked at in order to respect the requirements of international conventions.

7.4.1.3. Only the first printing of a book must be deposited, unless further printings have a different physical presentation.

7.4.1.4. All accompanying metadata should be deposited as well, for all categories or types of material.

7.4.2. Music Scores

7.4.2.1. Music scores, printed or in electronic format, should be subject to legal deposit.

7.4.3. Serials

7.4.3.1. Legal deposit legislation should include all types of publications issued periodically, even on an irregular basis, and loose-leaf services with updates.

7.4.3.2. Every issue of a serial should be deposited in order to build up as comprehensive a research collection as possible.

7.4.3.3. There could be exceptions to the comprehensive collecting of each issue: only the first issue of ephemeral material, such as internal newsletters of organizations, could be collected.

7.4.3.4. Serials also published in electronic format, off-line or on-line, should be deposited.

7.4.4. Pamphlets and Offprints

7.4.4.1. Pamphlets should be deposited, including ones with a minimum number of pages.

7.4.4.2. Offprints that are repaginated and issued for public distribution should be deposited.

7.4.4.3. Leaflets, posters, broadsides, post cards and other iconographic material could be deposited, but processing and handling procedures have to be well planned.

7.4.5. Iconographic Material

7.4.5.1. Posters, broadsides, photographs, post cards and engravings should be deposited if a country wishes to be as comprehensive as possible.

7.4.6. Government Publications

7.4.6.1. Government publications should be part of any national legal deposit scheme, even if their deposit might not be compulsory for internal legal reasons.

7.4.6.2. While it might be difficult to collect all municipal and/or local government publications, administrative arrangements should be negotiated to collect them at least at a regional level.

7.4.6.3. International and intergovernmental government publications cannot be subject to national legal deposit legislation because of the jurisdictional immunity principle.

7.4.7. Maps

7.4.7.1. Maps should be part of a national legal deposit collection.

7.4.7.2. As maps can now be produced on demand by using Geographic Information System software, legal deposit of maps could become problematic. As long as the databases remain complementary to the print material, there should be no major problems.

7.4.7.3. Maps are a good example of where another national institution, more specialized in handling the material, could get involved in the national legal deposit scheme.

7.4.8. Microforms

7.4.8.1. The microform edition of a print work should be subject to legal deposit, as is any other edition of a work.

7.4.8.2. With certain categories of material, such as newspapers, the depository could opt for the deposit of the microform edition only.

7.4.8.3. Original publications in microform format should be deposited.

7.4.9. Audio-visual Material

7.4.9.1. Sound and visual recordings, separate and combined, should be subject to legal deposit. All accompanying material should also be subject to deposit.

7.4.9.2. Because of the susceptibility of the carriers and equipment to technological changes and obsolescence, there could be a need to amend national copyright laws or provide the national legal deposit law with notwithstanding clauses allowing reproduction in current formats.

7.4.9.3. Networked multimedia works should also be subject to legal deposit, but all the problems related to legal deposit of electronic publications should be taken into account.

7.4.9.4. Radio and television broadcast material should be an object of legal deposit.

7.4.10. Other Types of Material

7.4.10.1. Before deciding on exactly what type of material should be subject to legal deposit, it is very important to evaluate the practicality of certain decisions. As an example, ephemeral material, such as internal organizational newsletters, might consume a lot of resources for a limited national historical research value.

7.5. Electronic Publications

7.5.1. Off-line and on-line electronic publications should be subject to legal deposit and should be deposited along with all appropriate accompanying material including proper software.

7.5.2. Dynamic on-line electronic publications (i.e. the ones kept up-to-date on an ongoing basis) should also be subject to legal deposit. The deposit could be handled through a "snapshot" deposit on a regular basis and when the title ceases to be published/produced. The first version of a dynamic on-line electronic publication should always be deposited.

Databases made up of unorganized or unedited data should not be an object of legal deposit.

7.5.3. The legislation should include provisions to ensure that registered users of the national legal deposit agency have access to the electronic material deposited.

7.5.4. To avoid abuse of the free access provided through the national legal deposit agency, access should be limited; however, publishers/producers should be required to permit a limited number of concurrent users.

7.5.5. As for audio-visual material, there may be a need to amend national copyright laws to permit the national legal deposit institution to download, and therefore reproduce, electronic publications for legal deposit purposes.