The Law Library of Congress, Global Legal Research Center

(202) 707-5080 (phone) • (866) 550-0442 (fax) • law@loc.gov • http://www.law.gov

Digital Legal Deposit in Selected 

Jurisdictions

Australia • Canada • China • Estonia • France • Germany

Israel • Italy • Japan • Netherlands • New Zealand

Norway • South Korea • Spain • United Kingdom

July 2018
This report is provided for reference purposes only. 

It does not constitute legal advice and does not represent the official 

opinion of the United States Government. The information provided 

reflects research undertaken as of the date of writing. 

It has not been updated.
Contents

Comparative Summary......................................................................................................................1 

Map ............................................................................................................................................3 

Timeline......................................................................................................................................4 

Australia ...........................................................................................................................................5 

Canada............................................................................................................................................15 

China ..............................................................................................................................................19 

Estonia............................................................................................................................................21 

France .............................................................................................................................................25 

Germany .........................................................................................................................................30 

Israel ...............................................................................................................................................36 

Italy ................................................................................................................................................39 

Japan ..............................................................................................................................................42 

Netherlands ....................................................................................................................................43 

New Zealand ..................................................................................................................................49 

Norway ...........................................................................................................................................57 

South Korea ...................................................................................................................................59 

Spain ..............................................................................................................................................61 

United Kingdom.............................................................................................................................65 
The Law Library of Congress 1

Comparative Summary

Peter Roudik 

Assistant Law Librarian 

of Congress for Legal Research 

This report, prepared by the staff of the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of 

Congress, surveys laws regulating the mandatory legal deposit of electronic materials. Fifteen 

countries representing different approaches to collecting, describing, preserving, and storing 

digital and non-print documents and providing access to them are included in the study. (See map, 

below.) These countries were selected because of their long-term experience with collecting online 

and offline electronic publications. Each country survey provides information on the history of edeposit programs in the country, identifies the national institutions charged with collecting and 

preserving electronic materials, analyzes the legal framework for depositing digital materials, lists 

the requirements applicable to publishers of such material, and describes the measures taken to 

bring e-deposit programs in line with the restrictions established by national copyright laws. Where 

applicable, details of the web harvesting process are also described. Laws regulating the legal 

deposit of physical copies of print publications are outside the scope of this report, although in 

some cases such laws are mentioned where they address issues associated with e-deposit. 

All countries included in this study have laws regulating mandatory, voluntary, and pilot programs 

aimed at collecting and preserving online and digital publications and born-digital materials. Legal 

deposit is mandatory in all of the surveyed countries, except for the Netherlands and Italy. While 

e-deposit programs can be traced to 1999 when Dutch publishers concluded their first agreement

with the National Library of the Netherlands on depositing electronic publications with a Dutch

imprint at the Library, and the National Library of New Zealand began selectively harvesting

websites, most countries developed their e-deposit programs in the last ten to fifteen years. (See

timeline, below.) Since then, the surveyed countries require that publishers and producers of

digital and online publications provide a required number of copies to the National Library

(Australia, Estonia, France, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain); to national

archives and government agencies in charge of protecting the country’s documents (Canada,

China); the parliamentary library (Japan); or to a network of libraries, including academic

institutions (United Kingdom).

Most of the surveyed countries place the responsibility for depositing e-materials on publishers or 

producers of electronic documents, establishing precise rules for delivering these materials to the

designated repositories. Some countries establish a time frame for mandatory deposits. Canada 

and Germany require that materials subject to e-deposit be provided to the designated libraries 

within one week after publication. This period is extended to twenty days in New Zealand, and 

cannot exceed one month in Australia and the United Kingdom. In China, a sample copy of an 

electronic work must be sent to the National Library and is archived even prior to publishing. A 

violation of these rules is punishable by fines (see, e.g., Estonia, France, Spain). 

While most of the countries require e-deposit to be conducted by publishers for free, regulations 

in Japan, Netherlands, and South Korea allow publishers to be reimbursed for the expenses 

associated with the deposit of electronic publications. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Introduction 

The Law Library of Congress 2

The majority of the surveyed countries extend the e-deposit requirement to websites, online 

publications (including born-digital works), and digitized copies of print materials. The United 

Kingdom allows a print version of a work otherwise subject to legal deposit to be substituted with

a digital copy. Some countries specify that sound, visual, and audiovisual resources are recognized 

as digital materials, to be deposited together with other e-publications. Estonia and France define 

separate rules for depositing movies. 

Software and databases constitute an interesting segment of digital materials when it comes to their 

preservation and deposit. France and Netherlands demonstrate two different approaches. While 

French law specifically identifies software and databases as subject to legal deposit, the Dutch 

National Library does not collect applications (apps), games, and databases, as they 

frequently change. 

Most of the countries surveyed have established their electronic deposit programs for the purpose 

of preserving the national culture in digital format, and thus focus on collecting digital materials 

that pertain to the national culture. As a result, deposit requirements in these countries typically

apply to materials published inside the country, or outside of the national borders if the publisher 

or domain owner is a permanent resident of the country (Australia, Spain), or materials that

specifically target the country’s population (Norway). The German National Library goes even 

further, collecting “all media works that are published abroad in the German language and 

translations of German works published abroad, as well as works about Germany published in 

other languages.” 

As a rule, private websites and online materials, information from listservs, and works for a limited 

audience are excluded from legal deposit requirements (Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Spain). The 

Estonian National Library refuses to collect live streaming and web publications with an 

unreasonably large amount of data. Data limits for deposited files have been introduced in many 

of the surveyed countries. Films and recorded sound materials are excluded from deposit 

requirements in the UK. Technology is a distinguishing factor in Japan when a decision is made 

as to whether a website should fall under e-deposit requirements. If a Japanese website has 

restricted access and special technology is needed for access, such website is exempt from 

mandatory deposit. 

Regular web harvesting is also conducted in the majority of the countries researched. Websites 

that fall under the country’s domain code or those sites whose hosts can be identified as physically 

located inside the country are typically collected for preservation. The Dutch National Library 

emphasizes that it “selects websites that are innovative, popular, or relevant to the Dutch society.”

The national Library of France does not collect electronic books individually but instead regularly 

harvests them from publishers’ websites. Once collected, access to all deposited materials depends 

on the commercial and copyright status of a publication. The repository is typically responsible 

for ensuring access and implementing any necessary restrictions. 

The laws and regulatory documents of all countries surveyed state, in one form or another, that the 

goal of maintaining an e-deposit system is to permanently preserve the national digital heritage. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Introduction 

The Law Library of Congress 3 

Mandatory vs. Voluntary Digital Legal Deposit in Selected Jurisdictions 

Source & Note: Created by the Law Library of Congress based on information provided in this report. This map depicts the digital legal deposit status of the fifteen countries surveyed.

Mandatory Deposit

ISO Code Country Name

AU Australia

CA Canada

CN China

EE Estonia

FR France

DE Germany

IL Israel

JP Japan

NZ New Zealand

NO Norway

KR South Korea

ES Spain

GB United Kingdom

Voluntary Deposit

ISO Code Country Name

IT Italy

NL Netherlands

CN

EE

FR

DE

IL JP

NZ

NO

KR

ES

GB

IT

NL CA

AU
Digital Legal Deposit: Introduction

The Law Library of Congress 4

Source: Design by Freepik, https://www.freepik.com. Content by the Law Library of Congress based on information provided in this report.
The Law Library of Congress 5

Australia

Kelly Buchanan

Chief, Foreign, Comparative, and

International Law Division I

SUMMARY Amendments to Australia’s Copyright Act that came into force in early 2016 extended the 

national legal deposit requirements to electronic publications, including both offline and 

online materials. Material that is published offline must be delivered to the National Library 

of Australia on the physical medium on which it was originally published. Online material 

must be provided to the Library if requested, including requests made through web 

harvesting software. If the material is not available on a public website, publishers can use 

the Library’s eDeposit service to deposit the material.

The National Library collaborates with state library and heritage organizations to select and 

harvest Australian websites for the PANDORA Archive. Publishers of websites receive a 

“request” as part of the web harvesting process and are provided with a link to a notice 

regarding the statutory authority for the request. The harvested websites are publicly 

available on the PANDORA platform. The National Library also harvests all Australian 

government websites for inclusion in the Australian Government Web Archive.

Other electronic publications deposited with the National Library are made available to the 

public depending on the commercial status of the publication. Access may be restricted to 

onsite users of the Library, who may only view but not download the publication, or a 

publication can be made available offsite but only in a read-only format, while 

noncommercial publications can be made freely available through the Library’s catalog and 

on Trove, the national online database aggregator hosted by the National Library.

In addition to legal deposit at the national level, currently two Australian states and one 

territory apply their legal deposit requirements to born-digital publications. The National 

Library is also working with all state and territory libraries to develop a national eDeposit

platform, which is expected to be launched in 2019. The system would enable publishers to 

deposit electronic publications once and fulfill both national and state or territory legal 

deposit requirements.

I. Introduction

The legal deposit system applicable to the National Library of Australia (NLA) is contained in the 

Copyright Act 1968 (Cth),1 and has been a feature of Australia’s copyright law since its colonial 

origins.2 Prior to 2016, the legislation only covered print-based, Australian-published items in its 

 1 Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), pt X div 3, https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00414, archived at 

https://perma.cc/L3X3-URQA. 

2 Civil Law and Justice Amendment Bill 2014: Explanatory Memorandum, Attachment A (Extending the Legal 

Deposit Scheme to Digital Material: Regulation Impact Statement (2014)), https://www.legislation.gov.au/ 

Details/C2014B00229/Explanatory%20Memorandum/Text, archived at https://perma.cc/5WBT-EFNB. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Australia

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definition of “library material” that needed to be deposited with the NLA.3 Digital material was 

not covered. The NLA utilized voluntary methods for collecting some electronic material for a 

number of years, including permission-based web archiving procedures, but reported that it 

collected only a fraction of freely-available material published online.4 

The Copyright Act was amended in 2015 to extend the legal deposit system to digital material.

5

The amendments came into effect in early 2016. The NLA website states that

[o]n 17 February 2016, the legal deposit provisions were extended to cover the online

publishing landscape. This includes all Australian print and electronic books, journals,

magazines, newsletters, reports, sheet music, maps, websites and public social media.

Legal deposit applies to any Australian person, group or organisation that makes this

material available to the public for sale or for free.6

Each Australian state, plus the Northern Territory, also have legal deposit legislation applicable to 

materials published in those jurisdictions. The laws contain different definitions of the material 

that must be deposited in state or territory libraries. Three of the jurisdictions currently require the 

deposit of born-digital material. 

Australia’s nine national, state, and territory libraries are currently collaborating on a project to 

develop a national eDeposit platform, which is expected to be launched in 2019. 

II. Digital Deposit at the Federal Level

A. Deposit of Digital Material

The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) now contains the following definition of “National 

Library material”:

A literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or an edition of such a work, (whether in an 

electronic form or otherwise) is National Library material if:

(a) the work or edition is:

(i) a website, web page, web file, book, periodical, newspaper, pamphlet, sheet of

music, map, plan, chart or table; or

3 Id.

4 Id.

5 Civil Law and Justice Amendment Bill 2014, PARLIAMENT OF AUSTRALIA, https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_ 

Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=s980 (last visited Apr. 18, 2018), archived at

https://perma.cc/TV3Q-8PCF; Civil Law and Justice Amendment Act 2015 (Cth) sch 7, https://www.legislation. 

gov.au/Details/C2015A00113, archived at https://perma.cc/3FJK-Y29W. See Kelly Buchanan, Australia: National 

Library to Implement Digital Legal Deposit from January 2016, GLOBAL LEGAL MONITOR (July 13, 2015),

http://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/australia-national-library-to-implement-digital-legal-deposit-fromjanuary-2016/. 

6 What Is Legal Deposit?, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit/what-is-legal-deposit (last visited Apr. 18, 

2018), archived at https://perma.cc/ERT7-62MU. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Australia

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(ii) prescribed by the National Library Minister for the purposes of this 

subparagraph; and

(b) copyright subsists in the work or edition under this Act; and

(c) the work or edition is not primarily audio-visual; and

(d) in the case of an edition:

(i) the edition contains additions or alterations in the text or other reading matter, 

illustrations, drawings, engravings, photographs or audio-visual elements; and

(ii) the content of at least one of those additions or alterations was not contained in 

any earlier edition; and

(e) the work or edition is not prescribed by the National Library Minister for the purposes 

of this paragraph.7

The NLA has produced a guide for publishers on the deposit of electronic publications.8 It states 

that, “[f]or the purposes of the Act, electronic library material is either ‘available online’ or ‘not 

available online’. Material ‘available online’ is communicated on (or via) the internet. This 

material has different deposit requirements to material not available online. The National Library 

will refer to ‘not online’ materials as ‘offline’ material.”9 The guidance document then further 

explains these terms:

a) Electronic material ‘available offline’ is distributed on a physical format carrier and 

supplied to the public (i.e. in a published form), whether for sale or free, by a person in 

Australia who is the publisher.

b) Electronic material ‘available online’ is material made available to the public in 

Australia whether for sale or free, via the internet or some other platform. This includes:

i. Material published on a website within the ‘.au’ top level domain name; or

ii. Material published on a website where the domain name is owned or licensed by

an Australian resident;

iii. Material accessible online on a website within Australia, where the DirectorGeneral of the Library or delegate considers the material should be included in the

national collection; or,

iv. Material published on the internet, other than websites, in Australia or by an

Australian resident.10

1. Offline Electronic Material

Offline material, which includes printed items and “electronic publications published on a harddrive, USB flash-drive, CD, DVD, or any other physical electronic media,” must be delivered to 

 7 Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), s 195CE.

8 NLA, DEPOSIT OF ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS WITH THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA (June 2016), 

https://www.nla.gov.au/sites/default/files/deposit-of-electronic-publications.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/7FVP6RNK. 

9 Id. at 5–6. 

10 Id. at 6.
Digital Legal Deposit: Australia

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the NLA within one month of publication.11 Such media is only accepted “if that is how the item 

was originally published and made publicly available.”12

The NLA guidance also states that,

[i]f a work is published so that it is available both offline and online, the offline version 

should be deposited within the mandated time (one month from publication) unless the 

Director-General or delegate has requested the online version be deposited within the 

required delivery period for the offline version.13

2. Online Electronic Material

The Act authorizes the Director-General of the NLA to request, in writing, a publisher to deliver 

material that he or she has made available online, where the Director-General “considers that a 

copy of the material should be included in the national collection of library material.”14 Online 

publications for which a request has been made must be deposited with the NLA within one month 

of the publisher receiving the request.

15 Publishers who do not receive a request may still deposit 

their works voluntarily.16

The legislation enables the NLA to request the deposit of a publication through the use of a web 

harvesting robot.

17 The guidance material explains that,

a) If the material is freely available on a website, the publisher must not do anything 

which would prevent the National Library from automatically collecting (with a robot 

harvester) the material from that website.

b) If the material is available on a website but is not freely accessible, the publisher must 

deliver the material through the edeposit service or other means as agreed with the Library, 

within one month of being requested.

c) If the material is not available on a website but is online material, the publisher must 

deliver the material through the edeposit service or other means as agreed with the Library, 

within one month of being requested.18

 11 Id.

12 Id.

13 DEPOSIT OF ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS WITH THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA, supra note 8, at 8.

14 Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), s 195CC.

15 Legal Deposit Frequently Asked Questions, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit-faq (last visited Apr. 23, 

2018), archived at https://perma.cc/SE6Q-UE2M. 

16 Id.

17 DEPOSIT OF ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS WITH THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA, supra note 8, at 7.

18 Id. at 8.
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The eDeposit service on the NLA website enables the deposit of online materials, such as “ebooks, 

electronic journals, magazines and newsletters.”19 In terms of technical formats, the NLA website 

states that

[t]he edeposit service accepts epub, PDF or mobi files for books, journals, magazines,

newsletters and music scores. Files must be under 500MB. If you publish in more than one

of these, our preference is epub.

The service accepts PDF, GeoPDF, TIFF, or GeoTIFF files for maps.

We do not accept Word documents. If you publish in a different format, please contact us 

and we will be happy to discuss options with you.20

B. Web Archiving

The NLA operates two platforms for archived Australian websites: the PANDORA Archive (an 

acronym of “Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia”) and the 

Australian Government Web Archive. 

With regard to the PANDORA Archive, the NLA states that, 

[s]ince 1996, the Library in collaboration with state libraries and other heritage

organisations has been selecting, collecting and archiving copies of Australian web sites

and online publications through a program know [sic] as the PANDORA Archive. The

objective of this program is to ensure long-term access to this important form of Australia’s

documentary heritage. In recognition of its significance the PANDORA Archive was

placed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Australian Register in August 2004.21

There are currently nine partner agencies, in addition to the NLA, with each writing their own 

selection guidelines and “establishing the portion of the national collection for which it will take 

responsibility.”22 Publishers of Australian websites or online documents, or members of the public, 

can notify the NLA of a website in order for it be considered for preservation in the 

PANDORA Archive.23 

19 How To Deposit, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit/how-to-deposit (last visited Apr. 23, 2018), archived 

at https://perma.cc/5ZGJ-2EB9; Legal Deposit, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit (last visited Apr. 18, 

2018), archived at https://perma.cc/82YL-ZWC8; Edeposit, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/edeposit/ (last visited 

Apr. 18, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/329E-54KQ. 

20 Legal Deposit Frequently Asked Questions, supra note 15.

21 Archived Websites, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/what-we-collect/archived-websites (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), 

archived at https://perma.cc/B43A-2RNE. 

22 PANDORA Partners, PANDORA: AUSTRALIA’S WEB ARCHIVE, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/partners.html (last 

updated Nov. 23, 2017), archived at https://perma.cc/FYT7-GUM8. 

23 Notification Form for Suggesting Websites and Online Documents for Inclusion in the PANDORA Archive, 

PANDORA: AUSTRALIA’S WEB ARCHIVE, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/registration_form.html (last updated July 25, 

2017), archived at https://perma.cc/MB3S-SSVR. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Australia

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The NLA has published a notice, issued by the Director-General, regarding the legal deposit of 

online materials, which supports the automated request for materials made by web harvesting 

software. The user-agent authorized by the NLA for the harvest (currently software operated by 

the Internet Archive) provides a link to the page containing the notice.

24

Users can search and access content in the PANDORA Archive as follows:

The full text of archived content in indexed and selected titles are catalogued and included 

in the National Bibliographic Database. Both the full-text index and catalogue records are

searchable through the Library’s national single search discover service (Trove[25]

).

The PANDORA collection can be browsed through subject and alphabetical listings on the 

PANDORA Home Page.26

The Australian Government Web Archive (AGWA) is a newer public interface, released in 2014, 

that complements the PANDORA Archive. It provides access to a collection of archived

Commonwealth (i.e., federal) government websites, which were specifically added starting from 

June 2011, although earlier content from previous harvesting activities is “progressively being 

added” to the site.27 Harvests are conducted at least once annually and are undertaken in 

accordance with whole-of-government arrangements that permit the NLA to “collect, preserve and 

make accessible web materials published by non-corporate Commonwealth entities subject to the 

Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.”28 Limited content is also 

collected from websites of Commonwealth corporate entities pursuant to specific agreements.29

The NLA notes that “[t]he AGWA is also the first publicly released service arising from the 

Library’s objectives to work with the tools and infrastructure required for the large scale—as

distinct from selective—collection of websites and to deliver a modern web archive 

discovery portal.”30

 24 Notice to Publishers of Online Materials, PANDORA: AUSTRALIA’S WEB ARCHIVE, 

http://pandora.nla.gov.au/crawl.html (last updated Feb. 16, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/A95U-UQDM. See 

also Notice to Publisher of Online Materials, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit/request (last visited Apr. 

24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/5TN9-P3SB. 

25 See Archived Websites (1996 – Now), TROVE, https://trove.nla.gov.au/website?q (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), 

archived at https://perma.cc/E2WR-WCTW. 

26 PANDORA Overview, PANDORA: AUSTRALIA’S WEB ARCHIVE, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/overview.html (last 

updated Mar. 10, 2016), archived at https://perma.cc/3GWB-H4KT. 

27 Australian Government Web Archive, AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT WEB ARCHIVE, http://webarchive.nla.gov. 

au/gov/ (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/6SQV-T55G. 

28 About the Australian Government Web Archive (AGWA), AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT WEB ARCHIVE, 

http://webarchive.nla.gov.au/gov/about (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/8BLC-NCJ2. 

29 Id.

30 Archived Websites, supra note 21.
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The NLA has also partnered with the Internet Archive since 2007 to select, collect, and archive 

copies of certain Asia-Pacific websites through the Archive-It service.31

C. Preservation and Access

1. Preservation and Security

The NLA has preservation responsibilities for several digital collections, including websites 

gathered as part of its web harvesting programs and Australian digital publications either deposited 

directly or on physical carriers.32 It states that the NLA “has a mandate and commitment to 

preservation and has been active in developing infrastructure to collect, manage, preserve and keep 

our digital collections available into the future. This is recognised as core business for the Library 

and is critical to its future relevance.”33

The NLA released the fourth edition of its Digital Preservation Policy in 2013, which sets out the 

purpose, objectives, challenges, directions, and implementation principles for preserving its digital 

collections.34 It has also published statements of preservation intent for different aspects of the 

digital collections.35 Furthermore, it “[h]as a long-standing program of projects to develop tools, 

procedures and infrastructure to manage the preservation of its digital collections. Currently this 

development has focused on the DLIR (Digital Library Infrastructure Replacement) Project,” and 

also states that it “[h]as a long-standing commitment to working with others in developing ways 

to address its own digital preservation responsibilities and to share information about 

digital preservation.”36

In terms of security, the NLA states that

[t]he National Library of Australia stores its digital collections securely and preserves them 

forever. Our IT security standards are based on those specified in the Attorney-General’s 

Protective Security Policy Framework, the Australian Government Information Security 

Manual, the ISO 27000 Standards and recommendations of the Australian National 

Audit Office.37

 31 Id.

32 Our Digital Collections, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/content/the-nature-of-the-library-s-digital-collections (last 

visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/Z7GB-FQKQ. 

33 Digital Preservation, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/content/digital-preservation (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), 

archived at https://perma.cc/3AVZ-CDGY. 

34 Digital Preservation Policy 4th Edition (2013), NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/policy-and-planning/digitalpreservation-policy (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/CM3M-N32P. 

35 Statements of Preservation Intent, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/content/statements-of-preservation-intent (last 

visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/HW7U-4YB6. 

36 Digital Preservation, supra note 33.

37 Access to Electronic Publications, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit/access-to-electronic-publications

(last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/6XY8-V4SK.
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2. Access to Electronic Publications

The commercial status of electronic publications is identified by publishers at the time they deposit 

the publication. A publisher can allow basic access as permitted by the Copyright Act, meaning 

that NLA users will only be able to view, and not download or copy, a commercial publication in 

the NLA reading rooms.38 Noncommercial publications with basic access as permitted under the 

Copyright Act will be available as read-only in Trove.39

If a publisher allows a publication to be made freely available, then “[a]nyone will be able to 

download and save deposited electronic publications to their computer or mobile device via a link 

in the National Library’s online catalogue and Trove.”40

Publishers can also apply an embargo period of twelve months for books, music scores, and maps, 

or a period of six months for journals, magazines, and newsletters. During this period only basic 

access as permitted under the Copyright Act will apply, and after the embargo period ends the 

publication will be made freely available.

41

When depositing an electronic publication, publishers can also specify that the publication has a 

Creative Commons license, and select the one that applies.42

III. Digital Deposit at the State and Territory Level

The association of National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA), which is made up of the NLA, 

National Library of New Zealand, and Australia’s eight state and territory libraries, states that 

“[s]everal NSLA libraries have legislation in place to cover this born-digital legal deposit material, 

and most are reviewing or amending existing legislation to extend to digital publications.”43 The 

three subnational jurisdictions identified as currently having legal deposit requirements for borndigital publications are Northern Territory, Queensland, and Tasmania.44

A. Northern Territory

The Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT) requires the publisher of an “internet publication” 

for which no printed version is published to “advise the CEO [of the Northern Territory Library]

of the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the publication on the publisher’s website” within two 

 38 Id.

39 Id.

40 Id.

41 Id.

42 Creative Commons and Electronic Communications, NLA, https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit/creativecommons-and-electronic-publications (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/95TD-3DMV. 

43 Legal Deposit in Australasia, NATIONAL AND STATE LIBRARIES AUSTRALASIA, https://www.nsla.org.au/legaldeposit-australasia (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/CNQ3-36CF. 

44 Id.
Digital Legal Deposit: Australia

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months after it is first published.45 The CEO is authorized to copy an internet publication and, “if 

it changes, may take further copies of the publication from time to time as the CEO 

considers appropriate.”46 If the publication is protected from being copied by technical means, the 

publisher must either provide an electronic copy of the publication on request, or provide the means 

to capture an identical copy from the internet.47

B. Queensland

Although the Libraries Act 1988 (Qld) does not explicitly refer to electronic publications in 

requiring publishers in Queensland to give a copy of published material to the State Library and 

Parliamentary Library, the language appears to be broad enough to encompass such publications.48

The State Library of Queensland states that electronic publications must be deposited, and that if 

a publication “is produced in both electronic and print formats the electronic version should be 

deposited, providing it is in either a PDF or Word (.doc) format. Otherwise the print copy is 

acceptable for deposit purposes.”49

The State Library further explains that it “is able to save and preserve electronic publications in 

the Library’s digital repository. One of the options available to people depositing e-publications 

is a deposit wizard.”50 Other options for depositing such material are forwarding it by mail on a 

disc or USB, sharing a Dropbox folder, or using other file-sharing services.51

C. Tasmania

The Libraries Act 1984 (NT) also does not explicitly refer to electronic publications in its legal 

deposit provisions or the definition of a “book” to which those provisions apply.52 The website of 

LINC Tasmania, the state library service, lists eBooks among the publications that must be 

deposited, and states that “[i]f a work is published in both digital and hard copy format only a 

 45 Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT), s 13(1), https://legislation.nt.gov.au/Legislation/PUBLICATIONSLEGAL-DEPOSIT-ACT-2004, archived at https://perma.cc/MR6F-RFJX. “Internet publication” is defined in 

section 5, id. See also Legal Deposit, NORTHERN TERRITORY DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND CULTURE,

https://dtc.nt.gov.au/arts-and-museums/northern-territory-library/library-collections/legal-deposit (last updated Nov. 

28, 2017), archived at https://perma.cc/NYB6-6AHV. 

46 Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT), s 13(2).

47 Id. s 13(3).

48 Libraries Act 1988 (Qld), pt 8, https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/act-1988-029, 

archived at https://perma.cc/BFF5-YT33. 

49 Legal Deposit, STATE LIBRARY OF QUEENSLAND, http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/publishers/legal-deposit

(last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/U8NM-Z6DN. 

50 Id.

51 Legal Deposit – Deposit Wizard, STATE LIBRARY OF QUEENSLAND, 

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/publishers/legal-deposit/wizard (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at 

https://perma.cc/WWP7-CSDG. 

52 Libraries Act 1984 (NT), ss 3 & 22, https://www.legislation.tas.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/act-1984-

109, archived at https://perma.cc/9GRA-43MU
Digital Legal Deposit: Australia

The Law Library of Congress 14

digital copy is required to be deposited unless the hard copy is different in layout or content.”53

Electronic publications can be submitted using LINC Tasmania’s “web-based document archive” 

called STORS (Stable Tasmanian Online Repository System).54

IV. National eDeposit Network

The Ned.gov.au website has been established to host the National eDeposit system, which is 

expected to be launched in 2019. The site currently states that “National edeposit is an innovative 

online service for the deposit, archiving, management, discovery and delivery of published 

electronic material across Australia” and is an exciting collaboration between Australia’s nine 

National, State and Territory libraries, responding to the major challenge of providing the digital 

documentary history of Australia for the future.”55 It further states that publishers will be able to 

deposit their publications once, using the system, and fulfill both their state/territory library and 

NLA legal deposit responsibilities. It appears that, once deposited, materials will be included in 

discovery services, including Trove and the catalogs of state/territory libraries and the NLA.56

A poster session at the Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, to be held in August 

2018, will provide information about the “evolving journey and collaboration of Australia’s nine 

national, state and territory libraries” in addressing the challenge of collecting, describing, 

preserving, storing, and making available digital publications through the National eDeposit 

network (NED).57 The session description further states that “NED comprises people, governance 

and policies and technological infrastructure to collect, preserve and provide access to Australia’s 

digital publications. It is a joint digital platform that streamlines deposit for Australia’s publishing 

industry and improves access for Australian people.” 

53 Legal Deposit, LINC TASMANIA, https://www.linc.tas.gov.au/how-to/Pages/legal-deposit.aspx (last visited Apr. 

24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/7BJL-9CDF. 

54 Id. See also Stable Tasmanian Online Repository System (STORS), LINC TASMANIA, https://digital.linc.tas.gov. 

au/deposit/action/start.do (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/P52H-9L77. 

55 National eDeposit, NED, https://ned.gov.au/ (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/888DEKRF. 

56 Id.

57 Collaborative Innovation: Australia’s National eDeposit Network (NED), ASIA-PACIFIC LIBRARY AND

INFORMATION CONFERENCE 2018, https://aplic.alia.org.au/content/collaborative-innovation-australia%E2%80%99snational-edeposit-network-ned (last visited Apr. 24, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/9FUW-J4N6. 
The Law Library of Congress 15

Canada

Tariq Ahmad

Foreign Law Specialist

SUMMARY Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is the federal institution with the mandate to acquire 

and preserve the documentary heritage of Canada, which it does pursuant to the Library and 

Archives of Canada Act and the Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations. Pursuant to the 

Regulations, which came into force on January 1, 2007, legal deposit applies to publications 

produced in Canada regardless of the medium or format, and includes online and 

digital publications.

I. Introduction

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is the federal institution with the mandate to acquire and 

preserve “the documentary heritage of Canada.”1 The Library and Archives of Canada Act2 is the 

federal statute in Canada “that legally empowers LAC to collect and preserve the nation’s 

published heritage.”3 Under the Act, the Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations4 “define the 

classes of publications which publishers are required to send to LAC for deposit and those which 

are not required unless requested in writing by the Librarian and Archivist of Canada.”5

On January 1, 2007, the date when the Regulations came into force, “legal deposit was extended 

to online or Internet publications. All Canadian publishers are required to deposit copies of their 

online publications with Library and Archives Canada.”6

II. Digital Legal Deposit Requirements

According to the LAC website, legal deposit applies to publications produced in Canada 

“regardless of medium or format” and includes “online or digital publications.”7 Under the Act a 

“publication” is defined as

 1 Library and Archives Canada, GOVERNMENT OF CANADA, https://www.canada.ca/en/library-archives.html (last 

updated Dec. 21, 2017), archived at https://perma.cc/3N2P-9LTL. 

2 Library and Archives of Canada Act, S.C. 2004, c. 11, http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-7.7/FullText.html, 

archived at https://perma.cc/NV6V-YWJ9. 

3 Legal Deposit, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/services/legal-deposit/Pages/legaldeposit.aspx (last updated Feb. 22, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/P3LN-ZAWK. 

4 Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations (SOR/2006-337), http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR2006-337/FullText.html, archived at https://perma.cc/26T3-L8ZQ. 

5 Legal Deposit, supra note 3. 

6 Frequently Asked Questions: Legal Deposit of Online Publications (Archived Content), LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES 

CANADA, https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/electroniccollection/003008-1002-e.html (last updated June 11, 

2009), archived at https://perma.cc/X7X8-2YSW. 

7 Legal Deposit, supra note 3.
Digital Legal Deposit: Canada

The Law Library of Congress 16

any library matter that is made available in multiple copies or at multiple locations, whether 

without charge or otherwise, to the public generally or to qualifying members of the public 

by subscription or otherwise. Publications may be made available through any medium 

and may be in any form, including printed material, on-line items or recordings.8

“Publisher” under the Regulations “means a person who makes a publication available in Canada 

that the person is authorized to reproduce or over which the person controls the content. It does 

not include a person who only distributes a publication.”9

A. Two-Copy Requirement

Section 10(1) of the Act establishes a statutory obligation to provide two copies of a publication 

for legal deposit:

10 (1) Subject to the regulations, the publisher who makes a publication available in 

Canada shall, at the publisher’s own expense, provide two copies of the publication to the 

Librarian and Archivist—who shall acknowledge their receipt—within

(a) in any case other than one referred to in paragraph (b) [referring to a special class of

publications only subject to deposit on request from the Librarian and Archivist], seven

days after the day it is made available;10

Section 10(4) stipulates that, “[f]or the purposes of this section, every version, edition or form of 

a publication shall be considered a distinct publication.”11 Therefore, digital versions of print 

publications must be deposited and every format of that digital publication would be considered a 

distinct publication. 

B. One-Copy 

Requirement Only one copy is required to be provided if only between four and ninety-nine copies of a 

publication are produced or if it is an online publication.12 In this situation as well, “[w]here 

publications exist in both physical and digital formats, both mediums should be deposited.”13

8 Library and Archives of Canada Act § 2 (emphasis added). 

9 Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations, supra note 4, § 1. 

10 Library and Archives of Canada Act §10(1)(a).

11 Id. § 10(4). 

12 Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations, supra note 4, § 3.

13 Deposit of Physical or Analogue Publications, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/ 

services/legal-deposit/Pages/physical-analogue.aspx (last updated Nov. 9, 2017), archived at

https://perma.cc/KWY3-GCPJ. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Canada

The Law Library of Congress 17

C. Two Copies on Request

Two copies may also be required on request from the Librarian and Archivist when fewer than 

four copies of a publication have been produced, or if the material falls within the following 

categories of online or digital material:

(x) deliberations of electronic discussion groups, listservs, bulletin boards and e-mails;

(y) websites, including portals, personal websites, service sites, intranets and websites

consisting primarily of links to other sites; and

(z) dynamic databases and raw data.14

In the case of a publication that is in this class, copies must be provided within “seven days after 

receiving a written request from the Librarian and Archivist or any longer period specified in 

the request.”15

III. Process for Deposit of Online or Digital Publications

According to section 2 of the Regulations, “[i]n order to make a publication and its contents that 

uses a medium other than paper accessible to the Librarian and Archivist,”16 the publisher is 

required to, 

(a) before providing a copy of the publication to the Librarian and Archivist,

(i) decrypt encrypted data contained in the publication, and

(ii) remove or disable security systems or devices that are designed to restrict or limit

access to the publication; and

(b) when providing a copy of the publication to the Librarian and Archivist,

(i) provide a copy of software specifically created by the publisher that is necessary to

access the publication,

(ii) provide a copy of technical or other information necessary to access the

publication, including a copy of manuals that accompany the publication, and

(iii) provide any available descriptive data about the publication including its title,

creator, language, date of publication, format, subject and copyright information.17

14 Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations, supra note 4, § 4(x)–(z).

15 Library and Archives of Canada Act § 10(1)(b).

16 Legal Deposit of Publications Regulations, supra note 4, § 2(a)–(b).

17 Deposit of Online or Digital Publications, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/ 

services/legal-deposit/Pages/online-digital-publications.aspx (last updated Nov. 9, 2017), archived at

https://perma.cc/7HNL-EA8R. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Canada

The Law Library of Congress 18

The LAC website provides the following instructions for the deposit of online or 

digital publications:

• Digital publications should not be printed and sent. Instead, the digital format in which

the publication was published should be deposited.

• LAC currently prefers Adobe PDF and EPUB formats for digital publications.

Publications are archived in the portable format in which they are received.

• Where publications exist in both digital and physical formats, both mediums should be

deposited.

• Publications in formats for the Web (*HTML, XML, PHP, ASP, etc.) should not

be deposited:

o Where portable formats exist of the same publication (Adobe PDF or EPUB),

these should be deposited instead.

o Where the publication only exists in formats for the Web, please contact the

Digital Legal Deposit section to discuss harvesting arrangements.18

The website also provides the following options for the submission of digital publications

to LAC:

• Online via the Digital Collection’s Upload platform (files 200 MB or less at a time)

(archived site):

. . .

• FTP for large quantities of files

. . .

• Email (mostly for subscriptions)

• CD-ROM or other storage devices, via regular mail (these are not returned to

the publisher)19

IV. Accessibility of Digital Legal Deposit Materials

LAC offers publishers a choice of two types of access levels for their digital publications, which 

publishers need to specify: 

• Open access: anyone can view and download the publication through the Web.

Whenever possible, we ask publishers to select this option.

• Restricted access (usually for retail titles): publications are viewable by the public

only at select terminals at LAC’s main building in Ottawa. It is not possible to print,

download or transfer files from these terminals.20

18 Id.

19 Id. 

20 Id. 
The Law Library of Congress 19

China

Laney Zhang

Foreign Law Specialist

SUMMARY Currently, publishers in China are required by regulation to submit free sample copies of 

electronic works to the National Library of China, the Archives Library of Chinese 

Publications, and the central government agency in charge of publication. The deposit 

requirement does not appear to have been extended to online publications or electronic 

copies of traditional publications.

China’s newly enacted Public Library Law contains a provision on legal deposit, which 

requires publishers to deposit official publications not only with the national library, but also 

with local public libraries at the provincial level.

I. Current Regulations

China’s Regulations on Publication Administration, which were issued by the State Council in 

2001 and revised in 2011, require publishers to submit free sample copies of publications to the 

National Library of China, the Archives Library of Chinese Publications, and the government 

agency in charge of publication under the State Council.

1

 The National Library of China asks for 

three copies of first-edition books and one copy of reprinted books to be submitted to the Library, 

which does not appear to include electronic copies of traditional publications.2

Based on the Regulations on Publication Administration, the General Administration of Press and 

Publication (GAPP) issued the Provisions on the Administration of Electronic Publishing 

(Electronic Publishing Provisions) in 2008.3 Effective April 15, 2008, the Provisions repealed the 

Provisions on the Administration of Electronic Publications that were issued by the GAPP in 

1997.4 The 2008 Provisions provide that “prior to publishing electronic works, a publishing unit 

shall send free sample copies to the National Library of China, Archives Library of Chinese 

Publications, and the GAPP.”5

 1 出版管理条例 [Regulations on Publication Administration] (issued by the State Council on Dec. 25, 2001, revised 

Mar. 19, 2011) art. 22, http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2011-03/19/content_1827821.htm, archived at

https://perma.cc/5UZ9-PDZ6. 

2 Briefing of Legal Deposit, NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CHINA, http://www.nlc.cn/newen/su/ldop/bold/ (last visited Apr. 

26, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/RX7J-T6LE. 

3 电子出版物出版管理规定 [Provisions on the Administration of Electronic Publishing] (issued by the GAPP on 

Feb. 21, 2008, effective Apr. 15, 2008), http://www.gapp.gov.cn/kejishuzi/Technology_old/contents/3738/ 

143297.html, archived at https://perma.cc/VZP2-2A3H, English translation provided by Westlaw China (by 

subscription).

4 Id. art. 63.

5 Id. art. 35.
Digital Legal Deposit: China

The Law Library of Congress 20

The deposit requirement does not appear to have been extended to online publications. Electronic 

publications regulated by the Electronic Publishing Provisions are mainly those stored on offline 

media such as CDs and DVDs. According to the Provisions, “electronic publications” are

media of mass communication that, by means of numeric codes, store informative and 

thoughtful contents upon editing and processing, on magnetic, optical, electronic and other 

media that have a fixed physical form, with access via electronic reading, display and play 

devices, including Compact Disk-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc), 

Compact Disk Recordable (CD-R, DVD-R, etc), Compact Disk Rewritable (CD-RW, 

DVD-RW, etc.), diskette, hard disk, integrated circuit card and other forms of 

media recognized by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP).6

Online publications are separately regulated by the Provisions on Administration of Online 

Publishing Services (Online Publishing Provisions), which were jointly issued by the State 

Administration of Press and Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) and the Ministry 

of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in 2016.7 The Online Publishing Provisions do 

not contain deposit requirements for online publications. The Provisions do require online 

publishing service providers to keep records of the content of online publications, as well as the 

time of publication and the URLs or domain names, for sixty days, but this is mainly for the 

purpose of government inspections.8 

II. New Public Library Law on Legal Deposit 

The Public Library Law was passed in November 2017 and took effect on January 1, 2018.9 The 

Law contains a general provision on the legal deposit of official publications, which requires 

publishers to deposit official publications not only with the National Library of China, but also 

with local public libraries at the provincial level.10 Relevant government authorities are expected 

to formulate detailed rules or revise the current rules on legal deposit in accordance with the Law, 

but have not yet done so.

 6 Id. art. 2. 

7 网络出版服务管理规定 [Provisions on Administration of Online Publishing Services] (issued by the SAPPRFT 

and MIIT on Feb. 4, 2016, effective Mar. 10, 2016), http://www.miit.gov.cn/n1146290/n4388791/c4638978/ 

content.html, archived at https://perma.cc/58TN-YF6T. 

8 Id. art. 34.

9 中华人民共和国公共图书馆法 [PRC Law on Public Library] (adopted by the Standing Committee of the 

National People’s Congress on Nov. 4, 2017, effective Jan. 1, 2018) art. 26, http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/ 

xinwen/2017-11/04/content_2031427.htm, archived at https://perma.cc/NA72-6BG6.

10 Id. art. 26.
The Law Library of Congress 21

Estonia

Nerses Isajanyan

Foreign Law Consultant

SUMMARY Estonia’s Legal Deposit Copy Act, effective from January 1, 2017, requires publishers to 

submit to the National Library digital files used for the production of publications and 

films made accessible to the public in Estonia. Moreover, the National Library uses a web 

harvester to download and archive websites on the national domain and other websites 

essential to Estonian culture.

I. Legal Deposit Copy Act

The National Library of Estonia started collecting digital files from public agencies and 

newspaper publishers on a voluntary basis in 2006.1 By 2014, all newspapers published in the 

country were being deposited digitally with the National Library. 2 In 2016 the Estonian 

legislature passed a new Legal Deposit Copy Act, which came into effect on January 1, 2017.

3

The Act covers all publications regardless of their form and means of distribution.4

The National Library has also developed and launched the Publishers Portal, an electronic 

deposit system for handling all communications with publishers who can use it to notify the 

National Library of newly published books and upload e-books and output-ready files of other 

publications. The Legal Deposit Copy Act makes it unnecessary to separately digitize 

publications and films because digital source materials are handed over together with the 

completed publications.5 Following the launch of the Publishers Portal the volume of deposited 

files reportedly grew by around 70% and the average size of a deposited file increased by some 

30%.6 The owner or publisher decides on access rights. Access can be provided via a computer 

terminal with no copying or saving capabilities, or the publication can be made accessible on the 

web without restrictions.7

 1 RAIVO RUUSALEPP, PRESERVING DIGITAL LEGAL DEPOSIT – NEW CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 2 (June 26, 

2017), available at http://library.ifla.org/1677/1/210-ruusalepp-en.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/2Q3Z-CBFC.

2 Id.

3 Säilituseksemplari Seadus [Legal Deposit Copy Act], RIIGI TEATAJA [OFFICIAL GAZETTE] RT I, July 7, 2016, No. 

1, https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/107072016001 (in Estonian), archived at https://perma.cc/VNX7-8S9T, English 

translation available at https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/514092016001/consolide, archived at

https://perma.cc/3BLE-XZJU.

4 The Storage Copy Act Improves the Availability of Publications, MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE REPUBLIC OF 

ESTONIA (Sept. 15, 2016), http://www.kul.ee/en/storage-copy-act-improves-availability-publications, archived at

https://perma.cc/P867-6XBB.

5 Id.

6 RUUSALEPP, supra note 1.

7 Publishers Portal – a New Communication Channel between Publishers and the National Library, NATIONAL 

LIBRARY OF ESTONIA (Feb. 8, 2017), https://www.nlib.ee/en/publishers-portal-a-new-communication-channelbetween-publishers-and-the-national-library/, archived at https://perma.cc/7KE7-C3VL.
Digital Legal Deposit: Estonia

The Law Library of Congress 22

II. Web Publications

The Act requires archiving at the National Library of any web publication that has been made 

publicly accessible

• in the “.ee” domain or another top-level domain geographically linked to Estonia;

• in another top-level domain where the publication is essential to Estonian culture; or

• by a citizen or a resident of Estonia, or a legal person registered in Estonia, where the 

publication is essential to Estonian culture.8

The Act does not apply to real-time streaming of web publications or to web publications 

requiring an unreasonably large amount of data for preservation.9

The National Library archives freely accessible web publications with a web harvester by 

downloading the website together with the elements required for display and recording it in the 

Library’s archives.10 If web archiving is not possible, the National Library asks the depositor to 

submit a copy through the electronic deposit system.11 Such a copy must be submitted within 

twenty days after the relevant request has been filed.12

Access to personal data contained in a legal deposit copy of a web publication must be 

terminated upon a justified request.13 If the National Library is not able to verify upon web 

archiving whether the web publication contains personal data, such publication must be made 

accessible to the public with the application of technical restrictions that do not allow the search 

and retrieval of archived web publications by using a person’s name or surname.14

III. Output-Ready Files of Print Publications

The Act also applies to output-ready files, which are defined as digital datasets used for the 

production of publications published, distributed, or made accessible to the public in Estonia.15

The depositor of an output-ready file of a printed publication is the producer or the issuing body 

if the latter has reached an agreement with the producer.16

 8 Legal Deposit Copy Act § 2. 

9 Id. § 3.

10 Id. § 7.

11 Id.

12 Id. § 9.

13 Id. § 15.

14 Id.

15 Id. § 1.

16 Id. § 5.
Digital Legal Deposit: Estonia

The Law Library of Congress 23

The output-ready file of a printed publication published for the first time in Estonia must be 

submitted to the National Library through the electronic deposit system as a file of the outputready file of the printed publication or a copy of an equivalent file.17 If the printed publication 

has been published as a translation of a publication first published in a foreign state and it is not 

possible for the issuing body to submit the output-ready file of the printed publication due to its 

contractual obligations, then four additional copies of the printed publication must be submitted, 

one of which will be used by the National Library of Estonia to prepare a digital legal 

deposit copy.18

IV. Output-Ready Material of a Film

The Act also applies to the output-ready material used for preparing a presentation copy of a film 

(output-ready material of a film) that is produced or co-produced and distributed or codistributed by a citizen of Estonia or a legal person registered in Estonia and is essential to the 

Estonian culture. The depositor of the output-ready material of a film is the producer or coproducer of the material.19

The output-ready material of a film must be submitted to the National Archives through a storage 

medium containing the output-ready file or by transmission of a copy through the electronic 

deposit system.20 The output-ready material of a film must be submitted within one year after the 

film was initially publicized in Estonia.21

V. Preservation and Use

The National Library is responsible for preserving legal deposit copies of web publications and 

output-ready files of printed publications. The National Archives is responsible for preserving 

the legal deposit copies of output-ready materials of films.22 The depositor is required to provide 

information on the name or title of the issuing body, producer or co-producer, descriptive 

metadata, right of use, structure, and technical metadata.23

If the copyright holder of a web publication or output-ready file decides to make the legal deposit 

copy accessible to the public, an authorization must be issued.

24 The legal deposit copy of a web 

publication or an output-ready file of a printed publication may be used at an authorized 

workplace,

25 i.e., at a computer terminal designed for the in-house use of a digital legal deposit 

 17 Id. § 7.

18 Id. § 8.

19 Id. § 5.

20 Id. § 7.

21 Id. § 9.

22 Id. § 12.

23 Id. § 11.

24 Id. § 14.

25 Id.
Digital Legal Deposit: Estonia

The Law Library of Congress 24

copy that makes recording to external data carriers impossible by technical or physical means.26

Computer terminals dedicated to the use of mandatory legal deposit copies have been established 

in five major libraries throughout the country.

During the first five years after submitting a web publication through the electronic deposit 

system or an output-ready file of a printed publication, the issuer of the submitted material has

the right to receive a free deposited copy in preservation format from the National Library, or

from the National Archive in the case of a film. After five years, a fee may be charged for 

this service.27

A legal deposit copy is not subject to destruction or deletion in the event of a court decision 

ordering the deletion of the web publication or the destruction of a publication or output-ready 

file. However, access to such a copy must be restricted by the preserving institution.28

Failure to comply with the requirements of the Act may result in a monetary penalty in the 

amount of up to €1,500 (approximately US$1,800).29

 26 Id. § 16.

27 Id. § 14.

28 Id.

29 Id. § 21.
The Law Library of Congress 25

France

Nicolas Boring

Foreign Law Specialist

SUMMARY Legal deposit refers to the legal obligation of any editor, printer, producer, or importer of 

certain material to provide copies of that material to the National Library of France (referred 

to as BnF) or one of several other authorized organizations. Anyone who knowingly fails 

to comply with his/her legal deposit obligation may be prosecuted and could face a fine. For 

works that are normally published in a physical format, the BnF may require the deposit of 

an electronic file as a substitute for the physical copy of the document. This seems to be 

uncommon, however, and the standard procedure is that a physical copy of the work be 

deposited. Sound recordings and videos may be deposited in digital format at the BnF, and 

publicly-released movies must be deposited with the National Center for Cinematography 

and Motion Picture in two copies, including one in digital format. As for electronic 

publications and internet content, they have been subject to legal deposit in France since 

2006. The BnF principally relies on automatic archiving of Internet websites and electronic 

books via a “crawler-bot” software.

I. Introduction: General Principles of Mandatory Deposit in France

Legal deposit (dépôt legal) refers to the legal obligation of any editor, printer, producer, or importer 

of certain material to provide copies of that material to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France

(National Library of France, referred to as BnF) or any other authorized organization.1 France’s 

first legal deposit law was a 1537 ordinance by King Francis I, which required printers and 

booksellers to provide the Royal Library with a copy of every printed book published or made 

available in France.2

The types of material that are subject to legal deposit are listed in the Code du patrimoine (Cultural 

Heritage Code) as “printed documents, graphic works, photographs, recordings, audiovisual 

works, and multimedia works, regardless of their method of production, edition or dissemination,”

if they are made available to the public.3 Software and databases are also subject to legal deposit 

if they are made publicly available, as are “signs, signals, writings, images, sounds, or messages 

of any kind communicated to the public by electronic means.”4 Depending on the nature of the 

 1 Dépôt légal [Legal Deposit], BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE [BNF] [NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FRANCE] (Aug. 

10, 2016), http://www.bnf.fr/fr/professionnels/depot_legal.html, archived at https://perma.cc/7UAG-8W4W. 

2 Peter Stirling et al., The State of e-Legal Deposit in France: Looking Back at Five Years of Putting New 

Legislation into Practice and Envisioning the Future, 38(1) IFLA JOURNAL 5 (Mar. 1, 2012), http://journals.sage 

pub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0340035211435323, archived at https://perma.cc/3SAR-CU4X; ROBERT ESTIVALS, LE 

DÉPOT LÉGAL SOUS L’ANCIEN RÉGIME DE 1537 A 1791 [LEGAL DEPOSIT UNDER THE ANCIEN REGIME, FROM 1537 TO 

1791] at 1 (1961).

3 CODE DU PATRIMOINE [CULTURAL HERITAGE CODE] art. L131-2, https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCode. 

do?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006074236, archived at https://perma.cc/NFP7-ZBPS. 

4 Id.
Digital Legal Deposit: France

The Law Library of Congress 26

work, material subject to legal deposit must be provided to one of the following institutions: the 

BnF, the Centre national de la cinématographie et de l’image animée (National Center for 

Cinematography and Motion Picture, or CNC), and the Institut national de l’audiovisuel (National 

Audiovisual Institute).5

Anyone who knowingly fails to comply with his/her legal deposit obligation may be prosecuted 

and could face a fine of up to €75,000 (approximately US$88,890).6 It is important to note that 

copyright protection is not linked to legal deposit.7 Indeed, copyright protection in France stems 

directly and solely from the creation of the work, with no procedural requirement necessary.8

 

However, the fact that an item was deposited, and/or the date of the deposit, may be used as 

evidence in copyright litigation.9

II. Digital Deposit of Non-Digital Works

Normally, material subject to mandatory deposit at the BnF must be “of perfect quality and 

identical to the copies in circulation.”10 However, the BnF may instead require the deposit of an 

electronic file as a substitute for the physical copy of the document.11 The manner in which an 

electronic file may be deposited in lieu of a physical copy of the document is subject to the 

depositor’s agreement.12

It appears that the default medium for deposit to the BnF is still the work’s physical copy. The 

BnF’s online instructions on the deposit of books does not mention an option other than the 

delivery of a physical copy.13 The same instructions even specify that books published in both 

electronic and paper formats must be deposited in both media, as “one type of deposit is not a 

substitute for the other.”14 Similarly, the BnF’s instructions for the deposit of periodicals,15

 5 Id. art. L132-3.

6 Id. art. L133-1.

7 MICHEL VIVANT & JEAN-MICHEL BRUGUIERE, DROIT D’AUTEUR ET DROITS VOISINS [COPYRIGHT AND SIMILAR 

RIGHTS] 258 (2016).

8 CODE DE LA PROPRIÉTÉ INTELLECTUELLE [CODE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY] art. L111-1, https://www.legifrance. 

gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do;jsessionid=3E54245E490E8BC5823BF217B7A24C44.tplgfr23s_2?idArticle=LEGIA

RTI000006278868&cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006069414&dateTexte=20180509, archived at

https://perma.cc/72FP-YUCZ; LAURE MARINO, DROIT DE LA PROPRIÉTÉ INTELLECTUELLE [INTELLECTUAL 

PROPERTY LAW] 184 (2013).

9 VIVANT & BRUGUIERE, supra note 7, at 258.

10 C. PATRIMOINE art. R132-8.

11 Id.

12 Id.

13 Dépôt légal des livres [Legal Deposit of Books], BNF (July 6, 2017), http://www.bnf.fr/fr/professionnels/depot_ 

legal/a.dl_livres_mod.html, archived at https://perma.cc/AN9U-6WNK. 

14 Id.

15 Dépôt légal des périodiques [Legal Deposit of Periodicals], BNF (Mar. 29, 2017), http://www.bnf.fr/fr/ 

professionnels/depot_legal/a.dl_periodiques_mod.html, archived at https://perma.cc/UF99-5FBJ. 
Digital Legal Deposit: France

The Law Library of Congress 27

cartographical documents,16 sheet music,17 and graphic works (prints, photographs, posters, 

postcards and greeting cards, calendars and almanacs, stickers, playing cards, and “any other 

production related to the graphic arts”)18 do not mention any option to deposit these material in 

digital form.

III. Digital Deposit of Videos, Sound Recordings, Multimedia Works, and Movies

Sound recordings and videos may be deposited in digital format.19 However, they must always be 

submitted in a medium that allows the public to see them, and with any password or other 

information necessary to access them.20 Similarly, software and databases must be submitted in a 

medium that allows their use, and with any password or other information necessary for use 

or access.21

Cinematographic works that are meant to be shown in movie theaters must be deposited with the 

CNC.

22 Other movies on a photochemical medium (i.e., film), particularly movies made for 

purposes of information, training, or promotion, are also to be deposited with the CNC if at least 

six copies have been produced for viewing by an audience.23 For most movies subject to deposit 

with the CNC, two copies must be provided: one in a photochemical medium, and another in digital 

format.24 The digital copy must be provided on an unencrypted hard disk or USB key.25

 16 Dépôt légal des documents cartographiques [Legal Deposit of Cartographical Documents], BNF (May 23, 2016), 

http://www.bnf.fr/fr/professionnels/depot_legal/a.dl_doc_carto_mod.html, archived at https://perma.cc/8AQUWU5X. 

17 Dépôt légal de la musique imprimée [Legal Deposit of Sheet Music], BNF (May 31, 2016), http://www.bnf.fr/ 

fr/professionnels/depot_legal/a.dl_musique_mod.html, archived at https://perma.cc/VFB6-UB82. 

18 Dépôt légal des documents iconographiques [Legal Deposit of Iconographic Documents], BNF (Feb. 16, 2016), 

http://www.bnf.fr/fr/professionnels/depot_legal/a.dl_estampes_mod.html, archived at https://perma.cc/BH4T-HJ84. 

19 Dépôt légal documents sonores [Legal Deposit of Sound Documents], BNF (Apr. 10, 2017), http://www.bnf.fr/ 

fr/professionnels/depot_legal/a.dl_doc_son_mod.html, archived at https://perma.cc/DXM4-TSBA; Dépôt légal des 

vidéogrammes [Legal Deposit of Videograms], BNF (Apr. 12, 2017), http://www.bnf.fr/fr/professionnels/depot_ 

legal/a.dl_videos_mod.html, archived at https://perma.cc/4WB9-EEUT. 

20 C. PATRIMOINE arts. R132-21, R132-22.

21 Id. arts. R132-13, R132-14; Dépôt légal des documents multimédias, logiciels et bases de données [Legal Deposit 

of Multimedia Documents, Software, and Databases], BNF (June 29, 2017), http://www.bnf.fr/fr/professionnels/ 

depot_legal/a.dl_doc_multimedia_mod.html, archived at https://perma.cc/8ANS-DQCZ. 

22 C. PATRIMOINE art. R132-26.

23 Id. art. R132-30.

24 Id. art. R132-28-1; Démarches: dépôt légal [Procedures: Legal Deposit], CNC (website of the French National 

Center for Cinematography and Motion Picture), http://www.cnc.fr/web/fr/demarches/-/editoriaux/61564 (accessed 

on May 10, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/YUB6-AL6F. 

25 Démarches: dépôt légal, CNC, supra note 24.
Digital Legal Deposit: France

The Law Library of Congress 28

IV. Digital Deposit of Internet Websites and E-Books

Electronic publications and internet content have been subject to legal deposit in France 

since 2006.26 

A. Internet Archiving

Internet legal deposit applies to “all types of publications disseminated on the internet: institutional 

or personal websites, free or paid-access periodicals, blogs, commercial websites, video platforms 

or digital books.”27 In principle, everything that is published on the internet in France is subject 

to legal deposit.28 In practice, this means that the legal deposit obligation applies to websites 

registered under a “.fr” top-level domain, and to any website edited by persons or organizations 

domiciled in France.

29

Contrary to legal deposit of traditional printed works and other non-internet-based material, legal 

deposit of websites does not require any action on the part of their editors.30 Instead, the BnF

principally relies on automatic archiving via an open-source “crawler-bot” software called 

Heritrix.

31 This automatic archiving proceeds through a sampling method based on “criteria aimed 

at ensuring the best possible representation” of content.32 It appears that the BnF conducts two 

types of website collecting. The first consists of bulk automatic harvesting to collect “snapshots” 

of websites belonging to the French domain.33 The second type consists of focused crawls based 

on a selection of sites and centered on a particular event (such as a particular election), or a given 

theme (such as “blogs, sustainable development, Web activism”).34 If content is found to be 

inaccessible at the moment of capture—whether for technical reasons (such as password-protected 

contents) or commercial reasons (such as paid-access or subscription-based content)—the BnF 

may contact the website editor to find technical solutions on a case-by-case basis.35

 26 Stirling et al., supra note 2, at 6; Loi n° 2006-961 du 1er août 2006 relative au droit d’auteur et aux droits voisins 

dans la société de l’information [Law No. 2006-961 of 1 August 2006 Regarding Copyright and Related Rights in an 

Information Society] art. 39, https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000 

266350&dateTexte=&categorieLien=id#JORFSCTA000000900122, archived at https://perma.cc/4V8E-TSFK. 

27 Dépôt légal des sites web [Legal Deposit of Websites], BNF (Feb. 13, 2018), http://www.bnf.fr/fr/professionnels/ 

depot_legal/a.dl_sites_web_mod.html, archived at https://perma.cc/G38E-QV5C. 

28 Stirling et al., supra note 2, at 8.

29 Dépôt légal des sites web, BNF, supra note 27.

30 Id.

31 Id.

32 Id.

33 Digital Legal Deposit: Four Questions about Web Archiving at the BnF, BNF (Mar. 23, 2017), http://www.bnf.fr/ 

en/professionals/digital_legal_deposit/a.digital_legal_deposit_web_archiving.html, archived at 

https://perma.cc/E7P2-55W6. 

34 Id.

35 Dépôt légal des sites web, BNF, supra note 27.
Digital Legal Deposit: France

The Law Library of Congress 29

The Heritage Code requires that internet content be collected “at least once a year.”36 The BnF’s 

website states that “several collection sessions occur throughout the year,” and that “each year, 

several million sites are thus captured, to a depth determined in advance (of the order of a few 

thousand files per website).”37 

B. Electronic Books

The BnF does not collect electronic books (e-books) individually, but rather collects them through 

their publishing websites during its regular website harvests.38 An e-book’s publisher therefore 

does not have to take any specific action for the legal deposit to take place.39 Since the BnF cannot 

guarantee that its collecting efforts will be exhaustive, however, publishers may proactively 

communicate the URLs of their e-books to the BnF.40

As mentioned above, books published in both electronic and paper formats must be deposited in 

both media.41 In other words, when a book is published both in electronic and physical formats, 

the fact that it was published as an e-book (and therefore would presumably be collected by the 

BnF during a website harvest) does not relieve the editor or publisher from the duty to deposit a 

physical copy with the BnF.

 36 C. PATRIMOINE art. R132-23-1.

37 Dépôt légal des sites web, BNF, supra note 27.

38 Id.

39 Id.

40 Id.

41 Dépôt légal des livres, BNF, supra note 13.
The Law Library of Congress 30

Germany 

Jenny Gesley

Foreign Law Specialist

SUMMARY A legal deposit requirement at the federal level was codified for the first time in West 

Germany in 1969. In 2006, the collection mandate of the German National Library was 

amended to include online publications. Since then, publishers have been required to 

submit one copy of their online publications to the German National Library free of 

charge, complete, in perfect condition, without time restrictions on their use, and in a 

suitable condition for permanent archiving by the Library. Online publications may also be 

made available for retrieval by the German National Library. Certain online publications 

that are of no public interest are excluded from the legal e-deposit regime. In 2012, the 

German National Library started archiving websites via web crawling.

I. Introduction

A legal deposit requirement has been known in Germany since the seventeenth century.1 The 

requirement now exists at both the federal and state levels. For West Germany, it was first 

codified at the federal level in the Act on the German Library of 1969.

2 The Act originally 

obligated publishers in Germany to provide one copy of each “printed work” (Druckwerk) to the 

German Library.

3 Nonphysical publications were not yet covered by the law. Starting in the early 

2000s, online publications were provided to the Library on a strictly voluntary basis by larger 

publishers and universities.

4 In 2006, the German National Library Act came into force, which 

included nonphysical publications in the legal deposit program.5 

1 Cornelia Diebel, Netzpublikationen – Sammlung, Archivierung und Bereitstellung in der Deutschen 

Nationalbibliothek [Electronic Publications – Collection, Archiving, and Accessibility in the German National 

Library], 27 DIALOG MIT BIBLIOTHEKEN 24, 24 (2015), https://d-nb.info/1118655729/34, archived at

http://perma.cc/C38G-D7V8. 

2 Gesetz über die Deutsche Bibliothek [Act on the German Library] [German Library Act 1969], Mar. 31, 1969, 

BUNDESGESETZBLATT [BGBL.] [FEDERAL LAW GAZETTE] I at 265, http://www.bgbl.de/xaver/bgbl/start.xav?startbk= 

Bundesanzeiger_BGBl&jumpTo=bgbl169s0265.pdf (no longer in force), archived at http://perma.cc/9FFG-G983. A 

similar regime existed under the Laws of East Germany (German Democratic Republic, GDR)) from 1960 until 

1990. See Anordnung über die Ablieferung von Pflichtexemplaren, July 4, 1960, GESETZBLATT DER DEUTSCHEN 

DEMOKRATISCHEN REPUBLIK [GBL. D. DDR] [LEGAL GAZETTE OF THE GDR] I at 423. 

3 German Library Act 1969, § 18, para. 1, § 19.

4 Diebel, supra note 1, at 24. 

5 Gesetz über die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek [DNBG] [Act on the German National Library] [German National 

Library Act], June 22, 2006, BGBL. I at 1338, as amended, http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/dnbg/DNBG.pdf, 

archived at http://perma.cc/SP4M-T5GR, unofficial English translation available at http://www.dnb.de/Shared 

Docs/Downloads/EN/DNB/wir/dnbg.pdf?__blob=publicationFile, archived at http://perma.cc/EDG6-LFXH.
Digital Legal Deposit: Germany

The Law Library of Congress 31

II. Current Legal Deposit Regime

The German National Library Act requires the German National Library to collect, archive, and 

catalog all “media works” (Medienwerke) published in Germany, all media works that are 

published abroad in the German language, all translations of German works published abroad, 

media works about Germany published abroad in other languages (Germanica), and printed 

works written or published between 1933 and 1945 by German-speaking emigrants.

6

 “Media

works” are defined as “all representations in text, image, and sound that are distributed in 

material form or made accessible to the public in immaterial form.”7 This includes 

noncommercial publications.8 “Printed publications” (media works in material form) are defined 

as “all representations on paper, electronic data storage media, and other media.” “Online 

publications” (media works in immaterial form) are defined as “all representations in public 

networks.”9 The collection mandate of the Library is further defined in the Legal Deposit 

Regulation (Pflichtablieferungsverordnung) and the Collection Guidelines (Sammelrichtlinien).10

Publications that are of no public interest may be exempted from the legal deposit program.11

The legal deposit requirements support the mission of the German National Library to collect, 

archive, and catalog all such media works.

Depositors are generally required to deposit two copies of printed media works with the German 

National Library, with the exception of music scores that are only made available on loan, for 

which only one copy must be submitted.

12 One copy also suffices for foreign printed works, 

translations of foreign-language works, and foreign-language printed works about Germany.

13

For online publications, one copy must to be submitted.14 If media works are published both in 

print and online, two copies of the printed work and one copy of the digital work must be 

deposited.15 Deposits have to be made within one week from the date of distribution or from the 

day that the media work was made accessible to the public.

16 If a publisher does not comply with 

6 German National Library Act, § 2, paras. 1, 2; Collection Mandate of the German National Library, GERMAN

NATIONAL LIBRARY, http://www.dnb.de/EN/Wir/Sammelauftrag/sammelauftrag_node.html (last updated Nov. 15, 

2017), archived at http://perma.cc/SQD7-NT4K. 

7 Id. § 3, para. 1.

8

 DEUTSCHER BUNDESTAG: DRUCKSACHEN UND PROTOKOLLE [BT-DRS.] 16/322, at 13, http://dipbt.bundestag.de/ 

doc/btd/16/003/1600322.pdf, archived at http://perma.cc/A85K-UEMZ. 

9 Id. § 3, para. 3.

10 Verordnung über die Pflichtablieferung von Medienwerken an die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek 

[Pflichtablieferungsverordnung] [PflAV] [Legal Deposit Regulation], Oct. 17, 2008, BGBL. I at 2013, as amended, 

http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/pflav/PflAV.pdf, archived at http://perma.cc/HQL2-22GB; Deutsche 

Nationalbibliothek [DNB] [German National Library], Sammelrichtlinien [Collection Guidelines], May 1, 2014, 

https://d-nb.info/1051940788/34, archived at http://perma.cc/ZNK3-XKNU. 

11 Legal Deposit Regulation, § 1, para. 1, sentence 2.

12 German National Library Act, § 14, para. 1, § 15.

13 Id. § 14, para. 2, § 15.

14 Id. § 14, para. 3, § 15.

15 Id. § 14, para. 3; Collection Guidelines, supra note 10, para. 2.2.1.9.

16 German National Library Act, § 14, para. 4.
Digital Legal Deposit: Germany

The Law Library of Congress 32

this requirement, the German National Library is authorized to purchase a copy at the expense of 

the publisher.17

III. Legal E-Deposits Procedures

A. General Description

As mentioned, depositors must provide one copy of online publications to the German National 

Library. “Online publications” include born-digital works and digitized copies of previously 

existing print publications (Digitalisate).18 Born-digital works are completely digitally designed 

and created, whereas digitized works are digitally reformatted versions of previously existing

analog objects.19 When a digitized work is distributed through a network, it becomes an online 

publication subject to the legal e-deposit program. Only digitized versions not made available to 

the public are not covered by the legal e-deposit regime.20

Submitted media works must be “complete and in perfect condition, without time restrictions on 

their use, . . . in a suitable condition for permanent archiving by the Library, . . . free of charge, 

and at the depositors’ expense.”21 Online publications may also be made available for retrieval 

by the German National Library.22 Sections 7 through 9 of the Legal Deposit Regulation explain 

the collection of online publications in more detail. They state that online publications are to be 

delivered in accordance with recognized technical designs and by standard market means. The 

depositor must provide any additional necessary elements, software, and tools to give the Library 

unrestricted use of the media work.23 The German National Library may limit the extent and 

frequency of the legal deposit requirement for online periodicals or may waive its right to collect 

certain online publications if the technical means for collection and archiving are not available, 

or if deposit requires considerable effort.

24 

Certain online publications that are of no public interest are excluded from the legal deposit 

regime.25 These include, among others, private websites or online publications that only serve 

commercial purposes—for example, websites containing vacation photos, instant messaging 

services, social media services like Twitter, or a description of a company’s goods and 

17 Id. 

18 German National Library, Definition des Begriffs „Digitale Publikation“ und aktuelle Verwendung der 

Terminologie in der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek [Definition of the Legal Term “Digital Publication” and Current 

Use of the Terminology in the German National Library] 4 (2017), http://www.dnb.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/ 

DE/DNB/wir/definitionDigitalePublikation.pdf?__blob=publicationFile, archived at http://perma.cc/RQ7Z-LAW6. 

19 Id. 

20 Collection Guidelines, supra note 10, para. 2.2.1.8.

21 German National Library Act § 16.

22 Id. 

23 Legal Deposit Regulation § 7.

24 Id. § 8, paras. 2, 3.

25 Id. § 9. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Germany

The Law Library of Congress 33

services.

26 Pre-publications, pure software or application tools, and radio and TV programs are 

also excluded.27

B. Submitting and Accessing Online Publications

The German National Library offers two options for depositing online publications.

28 Depositors 

can either send their online publications directly to the German National Library or make them 

available for retrieval by the Library in accordance with the instructions issued by the Library.

29

In the first case, depositors deliver their publications via a web form made available on the 

website of the German National Library. In the latter case, the Library uses an automated

delivery method (OAI PMH protocol, SFTP, or WebDAV).30 Certain publications—for example,

audiobooks—may not be submitted via the web form.31

The supported data formats are MARC21 and XMetaDissPlus, which are suitable for all kinds of 

online publications. ONIX 2.1 is used for e-books, sheet music, and audiobooks. JATS and

CrossRef are the most suitable for e-journal contents.32

The German National Library ensures that online publications are available on a long-term basis. 

Access to the archived copies is granted in accordance with the requirements of the depositor or 

the rights holder. At a minimum, however, simultaneous access in the German National 

Library’s reading rooms in Leipzig and Frankfurt is provided. The Library has installed 

computer terminals without internet connections to avoid possible abuses. In addition, there is no 

possibility to save the online publications on a storage medium or to process them further in any 

other way.33 Only printing is possible. No more than 10% of any media work may be 

reproduced, and then for noncommercial purposes only.34

 26 Id.; Collection Guidelines, supra note 10, para. 2.2.0.5.; Online Publications, GERMAN NATIONAL LIBRARY,

http://www.dnb.de/EN/Netzpublikationen/netzpublikationen_node.html (last updated Oct. 9, 2017), archived at 

http://perma.cc/BWV7-ESW8.

27 Legal Deposit Regulation, § 9, nos. 2–9.

28 Submitting Online Publications, GERMAN NATIONAL LIBRARY, http://www.dnb.de/EN/Netzpublikationen/ 

Ablieferung/ablieferung_node.html (last visited Apr. 3, 2018).

29 German National Library Act § 16, in conjunction with Legal Deposit Regulation § 7.

30 Submission Procedures, GERMAN NATIONAL LIBRARY, http://www.dnb.de/EN/Netzpublikationen/Ablieferung/ 

Ablieferungsverfahren/ablieferungsverfahren_node.html (last updated Nov. 23, 2016), archived at

http://perma.cc/2EKE-XXNF. 

31 Submission Procedures, supra note 30.

32 Diebel, supra note 1, at 26–28.

33 Urheberrechtsgesetz [UrhG] [Copyright Act], Sept. 9, 1965, BGBL. I at 1273, as amended, § 60e, para. 4, 

http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/urhg/UrhG.pdf, archived at http://perma.cc/CZ4F-SM8G, unofficial English 

translation available at http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_urhg/englisch_urhg.pdf (English version updated 

through Sept. 9, 2017), archived at http://perma.cc/2ZJ9-VGQN. 

34 Id.
Digital Legal Deposit: Germany

The Law Library of Congress 34

C. Web Harvesting

Although not explicitly stated in the Act, the German National Library’s collection mandate also 

covers collecting websites.

35 Unlike other national libraries in Europe,36 the German National 

Library did not begin collecting online publications by web harvesting, but initially only focused 

on digital versions of existing physical publications. It started with monographs (e-books) and 

university publications (such as online doctoral dissertations), and then eventually expanded to 

other online publications such as e-papers and e-serials.

37

In 2010, the German National Library started making preparations for web harvesting with the 

first web crawl taking place in 2012.38 It only collects selected websites whose preservation is in 

the public interest in selective harvesting runs. Online publications in the public interest may 

include news websites, but also forums and blogs. However, as such websites are subject to 

constant change, the harvesting is repeated on a regular basis. The harvesting itself is automated, 

whereas the address of the website, collection depth, and frequency are determined on a case-bycase basis and entered manually. The German National Library uses a “web crawler” that 

searches and stores predefined addresses for that purpose.

39

Web crawling is assumed to fall under the Library’s collection mandate. However, until an 

amendment of copyright law entered into force on March 1, 2018, the periodic harvesting of all 

German internet domains, meaning all “.de” domains, was prohibited. The German Copyright 

Act originally only allowed the German National Library to save online publications on a first

and one-time basis. Repeated retrieval of an online publication was an extension of existing 

archival contents and therefore a violation of German copyright law.40 In 2017, the legislature

therefore proposed an amendment to the Copyright Act and the German National Library Act to 

grant the German National Library the right to automatically and repeatedly harvest works that 

 35 Collection Guidelines, supra note 10, para. 2.2.0.3.2; BT-Drs. 16/322, supra note 8, at 12–13.

36 GERMAN NATIONAL LIBRARY, COLLECTION MANDATE OF THE GERMAN NATIONAL LIBRARY 3 (2017), 

http://www.dnb.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/DNB/wir/zumsSammelauftrag.pdf?__blob=publicationFile, 

archived at http://perma.cc/MUC9-DB54. 

37 Id. at 1–3.

38 Id. at 3. 

39 Collection Guidelines, supra note 10, para. 2.2.0.3.2.

40 Copyright Act as in force until Feb. 28, 2018, § 53. For an overview of the problems under German copyright law

see Eric W. Steinhauer, 10 Jahre Pflichtablieferung von Netzpublikationen – Eine Baustelle wird besichtigt [10 

Years of Legal E-Deposit – A Construction Site Visited], 28 DIALOG MIT BIBLIOTHEKEN 31, 32 et seq. (2016), 

https://d-nb.info/1115818023/34, archived at http://perma.cc/846Q-3QUC. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Germany

The Law Library of Congress 35

fall under its collection mandate.41 The Library is now entitled to archive websites even without 

requesting permission from the respective rights holders.42

IV. Statistics

By the end of 2016, the digital media holdings of the German National Library amounted to 3.45 

million units.43 The holdings included 

• 1,305,261 monographic online publications of which 649,954 were e-books (mainly 

commercial publications), 450,221 self-published titles (books on demand), 188,695 online 

dissertations and other university publications, 11,569 audio files (audiobooks), and 4,822 

digital notated music works;

• 3,931 e-journals (current and completed titles) with 603,013 issues or articles;

• 1,304 e-papers (titles) including 1,280,758 individual issues; and 

• 1,920 harvested websites.44

In 2017, the Library imported 2,691 online publications per day, which includes e-books and ejournals as well as other e-journal contents like individual articles or issues.

45 As of 2018, the 

German National Library’s storage capacity for online publications totals 12.4 terabytes (TB), 

excluding storage for harvested websites.46

 41 BT-DRS.18/12329, p. 50, http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/18/123/1812329.pdf, archived at

http://perma.cc/Q387-DVNS; Gesetz zur Angleichung des Urheberrechts an die aktuellen Erfordernisse der 

Wissensgesellschaft [Urheberrechts-Wissensgesellschafts-Gesetz] [UrhWissG] [Act to Align Copyright Law with 

Current Requirements of the Knowledge Society] [Copyright-Knowledge Society Act], Sept. 1, 2017, BGBL. I at 

3346, http://www.bgbl.de/xaver/bgbl/start.xav?startbk=Bundesanzeiger_BGBl&jumpTo=bgbl117s3346.pdf, 

archived at http://perma.cc/44EU-SQAM. 

42 German National Library Act, § 16a, para. 1 (“automatically and systematically”); Copyright Act, § 60e, para. 1.

Please note that the English translation of the German Library Act does not contain the new section 16a.

43 GERMAN NATIONAL LIBRARY, JAHRESBERICHT 2016 [ANNUAL REPORT 2016] 15, https://d-nb.info/1135 

316724/34, archived at http://perma.cc/NF4N-PC6P. 

44 DNB, COLLECTION MANDATE OF THE GERMAN NATIONAL LIBRARY 2–3 (2017), http://www.dnb.de/Shared 

Docs/Downloads/EN/DNB/wir/zumsSammelauftrag.pdf?__blob=publicationFile, archived at

http://perma.cc/4WYR-VD6S. 

45 Email from Cornelia Diebel, German National Library, to Johannes Jaeger, Foreign Law Intern, Law Library of 

Congress (Mar. 28, 2018) (on file with author). 

46 Id.
The Law Library of Congress 36

Israel

Ruth Levush

Senior Foreign Law Specialist

SUMMARY Israeli law imposes a duty of deposit on all works published in electronic format, including

internet sites, with the National Library of Israel (NLI). This duty is implemented in 

accordance with regulations that specify methods of compliance depending on the format of 

the publication. The NLI implements information security measures to protect electronic 

publications it receives under the deposit requirements.

I. General Deposit Requirements

The Books (Duty of Deposit and Specification of Details) Law, 5761-2000 imposes a mandatory 

duty to deposit two copies of books and newspapers published in Israel with the National Library 

of Israel (NLI).

1 The Law “set the National Library of Israel as the primary deposit organization 

in Israel, minimizing [previously existing] deposit requirements for the State Archive and 

Knesset Library.”2

The Law further requires that information regarding the year of publication and printing, as well 

as the name and address of a work’s printer and publisher, must be visibly noted in the work or on 

its packaging, as appropriate.3 

In accordance with amendments to the Law’s implementing regulations, adopted in December 

2015, the duty of deposit and specification of identifying details extends to any book or newspaper

published in a digital edition, including internet editions and internet sites.

4

II. Internet Editions of Books and Newspapers

For “electronic editions of books and newspapers the use of which requires internet connection” 

(electronic edition) that are distributed in formats that do not enable preservation, publishers must 

deliver an additional copy to the NLI in one of the following preservation formats:

 1 Books (Duty of Deposit and Specification of Details) Law, 5761-2000, § 2, SEFER HAHUKIM [SH] [BOOK OF 

LAWS, official gazette] 5761 No. 1767 p. 80, as amended.

2 See History of The Books Law, THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL (last visited 6/25/18)

http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/library/depositing/Pages/lgd_history.aspx, archived at https://perma.cc/7578-

MBMR.

3 Books (Duty of Deposit and Specification of Details) Law, 5761-2000, § 3. 

4 Books (Duty of Deposit and Specification of Details) Regulations, KOVETZ HATAKANOT [KT] [Subsidiary 

Legislation] 5764 No. 6337 p. 958, as amended by the Books (Duty of Deposit and Specification of Details) 

(Amendment) 5776-2015, KT 5776 p. 351 (Dec. 24, 2015). The text of the Amendment is available on the website 

of the National Library of Israel, at http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/Hebrew/library/depositing/Documents/tak-7587-

book-law.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/GB44-E8TQ.
Digital Legal Deposit: Israel

The Law Library of Congress 37

• AVI 

• TIFF 

• EPUB 

• PDF 

• WAVE 

• MPEG-4

• JPEG

• MP35

When delivery of a copy in accordance with the above requirements is not possible, “delivery shall 

be exercised by grant of access without technical protective measures and in a way that enables 

creation of a copy and its preservation, in all its parts, by the National Library.”6

III. Non-Internet Electronic Format Editions

As a rule, a book or a newspaper in an electronic format that is not an internet edition should be 

delivered to the NLI in the electronic format in which it is distributed.7 Copies delivered must be 

full text and accessible. Thus, any limitations or restrictions on use, including a password 

requirement, must be removed, and any necessary software or technical or other information, 

including use instructions, must be provided. 

When the book or newspaper is distributed in formats that do not enable preservation, an additional 

copy in any one of the above-listed preservation formats must be provided.8

Directions for the delivery of copies are available on the NLI website

(http://nli.org.il/LegalDeposit).

9

IV. Internet Sites 

The mandatory deposit duty generally also extends to internet sites or to works available on 

internet sites, excluding works for a limited audience, such as family members, participants at 

private events, or employees or students at an educational institution, unless their deposit was

requested by the NLI.10 Accordingly the operator or a person under whose name the site operates 

should provide the NLI access to the work or site within thirty days of the request for access and 

remove any technical protections to enable the NLI to create and preserve a copy of the site.

11

 5 Id. § 2A(b)(1) & (c)(2)(c).

6 Id. § 2A(b)(2).

7 Id. § 2A(c)(1).

8 Id. § 2A(c)(2).

9 Id. § 2A(c)(3). 

10 Id. §§ 1 & 4A(a).

11Id. § 4A(b)–(c).
Digital Legal Deposit: Israel

The Law Library of Congress 38

The NLI operates an archival project, the Archinet, for the archiving and preservation of works 

published in electronic formats.12 The project began in 2013 and focuses on websites with the toplevel domain name “.il” and “some additional websites that are under Israeli geolocation or 

relevant to the Israeli public.”13

V. Security and Access

The NLI implements information security measures to protect electronic publications it receives 

under the deposit requirements. According to its website, 

• The electronic publications are saved in the secure Library servers.

• The ability to view and access the electronic publications are possible only with the 

National Library building. Access is limited to two users at any given time.

• Readers are forewarned that under the copyright law terms of use of 2007 it is prohibited 

to use the collections of the library whether for commercial or non-commercial use. The 

reader is obliged not to copy, photocopy, photograph, publish, distribute, hand over to a 

third party, or make any use of the publications as described under the law, except for "Fair 

Use" of the publication for study, research, or critique as defined under the terms of use of 

the copyright law and/or they received permission from the copyright holders.

• The National Library does not enable digital copying of its publications: It is prohibited 

to save them on a flash drive, send then via email or any other method.

• Catalog information regarding the publications is available to all users via the digital 

catalog of the library, as any other item in the Library.

Further to the stated above are per the general terms of use on the National 

Library website.14

 12 Electronic Publications, THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL, http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/Hebrew/ 

library/depositing/Pages/Electronic_publications.aspx (last visited June 15, 2018), archived at

https://perma.cc/Q3YY-QNZ8.

13 ARCHINET: Israeli Internet Archive, THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL, http://web.nli.org.il/sites/ 

NLI/English/collections/israel-collection/internet_archive/Pages/default.aspx (last visited June 15, 2018), archived 

at https://perma.cc/A3FM-7EKC.

14 Electronic Publications, supra note 12. See also FAQ, THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL, 

http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/israel-collection/internet_archive/Pages/faq.aspx , archived at

https://perma.cc/H8HV-TZVJ.
The Law Library of Congress 39

Italy

Dante Figueroa

Senior Legal Information Analyst

SUMMARY Italy passed its sole legislation on the legal deposit of online materials in 2006. That

legislation calls for the voluntary electronic deposit of materials by online publishers as part 

of an initial pilot program. This voluntary deposit system is set to operate according to 

specific agreements between publishers and depository libraries. To facilitate the 

implementation of this experimental stage of the e-deposit program, a flexible licensing 

model agreement was developed in 2010. Due to financial constraints affecting the Italian 

government, the voluntary program remains barely operational, however, and as of 2017 

only a handful of online journals had joined. 

I. Basic Legislation on Digital Legal Deposit

Presidential Decree No. 252 of 20061 overhauled the legal deposit system in Italy, and among 

other things included rules on the deposit of online content. A report issued by the International 

Publishers Association (IPA) in 2014 described the essentials of the 2006 Italian legislation 

concerning the deposit of electronic materials.

2 According to the IPA report, the Italian electronic 

deposit system seeks to promote “voluntary digital deposit and fixes certain priorities (scholarly 

publications, existing print titles that have been converted to e-books, publications of public 

institutions, [and] popular websites).”3 The report reaffirms that Presidential Decree No. 252 of 

2006 creates a “pilot scheme for voluntary deposit . . . to prepare the ground for the later

introduction of legal deposit.”4

Accordingly, existing legislation provides for voluntary experimentation with the legal deposit of 

online documents in accordance with rules and procedures established by the Ministry for Cultural 

Assets and Activities with previous input from the Committee for Legal Deposit.5 This Committee 

is composed of “representatives from publishing houses and the Associazione Italiana Editori (AIE

– Italian Publishers Association) as well as from Italy’s central national libraries in Rome 

and Florence.”6

 1 Decreto del Presidente della Repubblica 3 maggio 2006, n. 252, Regolamento recante Norme in Materia di 

Deposito Legale dei Documenti di Interesse Culturale Destinati all’Uso Pubblico [Decree of the President of the 

Republic No. 252 of May 3, 2006, Regulations on the Legal Deposit of Documents of a Cultural Interest Destined to 

Public Use] (D.P.R. No. 252), GAZZETTA UFFICIALE [G.U.] No. 191 (Aug. 18, 2006), http://www.gazzettaufficiale. 

it/eli/id/2006/08/18/006G0272/sg, archived at https://perma.cc/QWN8-YFZH.

2 IPA, DIGITAL LEGAL DEPOSIT (IPA Special Report, July 24, 2014) (IPA Report), https://www.international 

publishers.org/images/news/2014/digital-legal-deposit-2014.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/S65F-CMJH.

3 Id.

4 Id.

5 D.P.R. No. 252, art. 37.

6 IPA Report, supra note 2.
Digital Legal Deposit: Italy

The Law Library of Congress 40

II. Work of the Legal Deposit Committee

The experimental phase established in Presidential Decree No. 252 of 2006 provides for the 

voluntary adherence by electronic publishers to the terms sets forth in specific agreements between 

the publishers and the depositing libraries.

7 The Committee met for the first time in 2010 and 

approved a “flexible licensing model agreement,”8 which allows user access “only on the library 

premises, with no possibility to copy, download or email content.”9 The flexible licensing model 

agreement also allows publishers to license other rights to participating libraries, including (a) 

delivery of printed copies on request by the user, (b) printed document delivery to other libraries,

(c) digital document delivery to other libraries, and (d) online access from the premises of 

other libraries.

10

In 2011, the General Directorate of the Book Heritage at the Ministry for Cultural Assets and 

Activities and the main Italian associations representing publishers signed an agreement to 

promote voluntary experimentation with the legal deposit of online documents.11 The agreement 

also sought to promote the creation of a dark archive at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in 

Venice.12 To that effect, a “National Coordinating System for the Preservation of Long-Term 

Access to Digital Resources” was created, with the Magazzini Digitali (Digital Journals) project 

as one of its first undertakings.

13

As of 2014, about twenty-five entities had adhered to the e-deposit program;

14 by 2015 about fortyfive scientific journals with a total of 6,458 articles archived through harvesting had joined the 

voluntary e-deposit system.

15 Participation remains low, however; as of February 2017, only 113 

journals had joined the program.

16

 7 Giovanni Bergamin & Giovanna Cordani, Magazzini Digitali [Digital Journals] (Feb. 23, 2015), http://www.iccu. 

sbn.it/opencms/export/sites/iccu/documenti/2015/Magazzini_digitali_Scheda_per_assemblea_dei_poli.pdf, archived 

at https://perma.cc/C6VK-SBQP.

8 Id.

9 Id.

10 IPA Report, supra note 2.

11 Bergamin & Cordani, supra note 7. 

12 Id.

13 Id. 

14 Editori Aderenti [Adhering Publishers], DEPOSITOLEGALE.IT, http://www.depositolegale.it/editori-aderenti/ (last 

modified Jan. 30, 2017), archived at https://perma.cc/V28K-M85J.

15 Bergamin & Cordani, supra note 7.

16 Journals, DEPOSITOLEGALE.IT, http://www.depositolegale.it/journals/ (last updated Feb. 8, 2017), archived at

https://perma.cc/89RP-6ASS.
Digital Legal Deposit: Italy

The Law Library of Congress 41

III. Penalties for Failure to Comply with Print Legal Deposit Obligations

A May 2015 Decree17 charges the national central libraries with the obligation to detect and warn 

noncomplying subjects obliged to effectuate legal deposit under the 2006 Presidential Decree, and 

to include a calculation of the fine to which they are subject.

18 If the subject complies with the 

obligation within sixty days, the fine is reduced by one-third.19 In cases of nonpayment, the 

Ministry of the Treasury undertakes collection procedures.20 At any rate, the subject must pay the 

fine and make the legal deposit of the works as prescribed by the law.

21 The subject may challenge 

the measures before a justice of the peace.22

However, due to the voluntary nature of the e-deposit system established in the legislation,23 these 

penalties do not apply to the rules on the deposit of online content.

IV. Current Status of the Pilot Program

According to the IPA, the Italian government has been unable to finance the pilot e-deposit 

program due to financial constraints, and the program therefore remains stalled.24

 17 Decreto 13 maggio 2015 Sanzioni sul Materiale Soggetto a Deposito Legale [Decree of May 13, 2015, Penalties 

on Materials Subject to Legal Deposit] (Decree of 2015), G.U. No. 122 (May 28, 2015), http://www.gazzetta 

ufficiale.it/eli/id/2015/05/28/15A03992/sg, archived at https://perma.cc/3UBM-64E8.

18 Decree of 2015, art. 1 (citing D.P.R. No. 252, art. 44, ¶ 1).

19 Id. art. 3, ¶ 2.

20 Id. art. 4.

21 Id. arts. 7 & 9.

22 Id. art. 8.

23 Id. art. 37.

24 IPA Report, supra note 2.
The Law Library of Congress 42

Japan

Sayuri Umeda

Foreign Law Specialist

Japan’s National Diet Library (NDL) Law describes the country’s online publication deposit 

system.1 “Online publications” are defined as 

texts, images, sounds, or programs recorded by electronic, magnetic, or any other means 

not directly open to human perception, made available to the public or transmitted through 

the Internet and other advanced information and telecommunications networks, and 

specified by the Chief Librarian as corresponding to books or serials (except confidential 

matters, blank forms, specimen pages and other simple publications).

2

 

Since July 1, 2013, any person who has made online publications available to the public or 

transmitted them through the internet or other information and telecommunications networks has 

been required to provide copies to the NDL.

3

 The NDL records this material on its media.4 A

person who has provided online publications may be reimbursed in an amount equivalent to the 

expenses usually required for the provision of such a publication.

5

However, for the time being, online publications that are made available to the public or 

transmitted for value, or those to which access is restricted or for which copying is restricted by 

technological measures, are exempt from the deposit obligation,

6 due to the fact that there are 

issues concerning the method of compensation for, and the collection and preservation of, 

such publications.

7

 

The NDL began the experimental collection of these excluded online publications through the 

Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan on December 1, 2015. Publishers and authors 

voluntarily provide content to the Electronic Book Publishers Association for the NDL collection.

NDL visitors can browse such online publications.

8

 The experimental collection of these materials 

is to conclude in January 2030.9

 1 国立国会図書館法 [National Diet Library Act], Act No. 5 of 1948, amended by Act No. 40 of 2014, art. 25-4,

http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/aboutus/laws.html, archived at https://perma.cc/L8ZK-7Y5W. 

2 Id. art. 25-4, para. 1.

3 Id. & Supp. Provisions, arts. 1 & 3.

4 Id. art. 25-4, para. 3.

5 Id. 25-4, para. 4.

6 Id. Supp. Provision art. 2.

7 Press Release, NDL, 電子書籍・電子雑誌収集実証実験事業の開始について [Regarding Starting of 

Experiment of Collection of Electronic Books and Electronic Magazines] at 2 (Nov. 30, 2015), http://www.ndl. 

go.jp/jp/news/fy2015/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2015/11/24/pr151130.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/G9DT-3F76. 

8 Id. at 1.

9 Id. at 2.
The Law Library of Congress 43

Netherlands

Jenny Gesley

Foreign Law Specialist

SUMMARY The Netherlands does not have a mandatory legal deposit requirement. Both printed and 

electronic publications are submitted on a voluntary basis and the conditions are laid down 

in several agreements with the Netherlands Publishers Association and individual 

publishers. The mandate of the National Library (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB) includes 

establishing and maintaining a national digital library. Electronic publications are 

submitted via an e-book platform, manually uploaded by the publisher on the KB’s 

website, or submitted via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) transfers. In 2007, the KB started 

archiving selected Dutch websites. It adopted an opt-out approach for web harvesting, 

meaning that implicit or tacit permission is assumed if a website owner does not respond to 

the harvest request within a specific time frame.*

I. Introduction

The origins of the National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB) date back 

to 1798.1 The KB’s legal status and functions are determined by the Higher Education and 

Research Act2 and the Public Library Provisions Systems Act.

3 Moreover, the Non-Departmental 

Public Bodies Framework Act also applies to the Library.4 The Public Library Provisions 

Systems Act, which entered into force on January 1, 2015, merged the Sector Institute Public 

Libraries (Sectorinstituut Openbare Bibliotheken), the Library Foundation (Stichting 

Bibliotheek.nl), the Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Digitale Bibliotheek voor de 

Nederlandse Letteren), and the National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) 

under the umbrella of the National Library of the Netherlands.

5

 * At present there are no Law Library of Congress research staff members versed in Dutch. This report has been 

prepared by the author’s reliance on practiced legal research methods and on the basis of relevant legal resources, 

chiefly in English, currently available in the Law Library and online.

1 KB in a Nutshell, KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK [KB] [NATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE NETHERLANDS], https://www.kb. 

nl/en/organisation/organization-and-policy/kb-in-a-nutshell (last visited Apr. 10, 2018), archived at

http://perma.cc/3GZ7-746J; History of the KB, KB, https://www.kb.nl/en/organisation/organization-andpolicy/history-of-the-kb (last visited Apr. 10, 2018), archived at http://perma.cc/5DA6-6VCJ.

2 Wet op het hoger onderwijs en wetenschappelijk onderzoek [WHW] [Higher Education and Research Act],

STAATSBLAD VAN HET KONINKRIJK DER NEDERLANDEN [GOVERNMENT GAZETTE OF THE KINGDOM OF THE 

NETHERLANDS] [STB.], 1992, No. 593, Oct. 8, 1992, http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0005682/2018-02-01, archived 

at http://perma.cc/5847-SWF5. 

3 Wet stelsel openbare bibliotheekvoorzieningen [Wsob] [Public Library Provisions Systems Act], STB. 2014, No. 

471, Dec. 5, 2014, http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0035878/2015-01-01, archived at http://perma.cc/5UUA-UL5B. 

4 Kaderwet zelfstandige bestuursorganen [Non-Departmental Public Bodies Framework Act], Nov. 30, 2006, STB.

2006, No. 587, http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0020495/2015-01-01, archived at http://perma.cc/FGC5-UEQT. 

5 Jos Debeij, New Legislation for Public Libraries in the Netherlands & the New Role for the Koninklijke 

Bibliotheek (Aug. 14, 2015), http://library.ifla.org/1277/1/200-debeij-en.pdf, archived at http://perma.cc/8TWUSX33. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Netherlands

The Law Library of Congress 44

The KB’s objectives are defined in the Higher Education and Scientific Research Act and in the 

Public Library Provisions Systems Act. These Acts obligate the KB to provide access to Dutch 

knowledge and culture of the past and present to the general public and task the KB with creating

and maintaining a national collection and coordinating with other academic libraries in the 

country.

6 The Public Library Provisions Systems Act extended the KB’s mandate, inter alia, to 

the management of digitalization. This includes the duty to establish and maintain a national 

digital library (landelijke digitale bibliotheek).

7

II. Current Legal Deposit Regime and Collection Mandate

Unlike other European jurisdictions, the Netherlands has no legislation on mandatory legal 

deposits.

8 Since 1974, a voluntary deposit system has developed, which is laid down in an 

agreement with the Netherlands Publishers Association (Nederlandse Uitgeversverbond).

9 In 

general, publishers may decide for themselves whether they provide publications originating in 

the Netherlands to the KB. The KB, however, encourages all publishers to provide a single copy 

for deposit free of charge. Under certain circumstances the Library will pay for deposit copies, in 

particular when production costs are high.

10 In order to establish the national digital library, the 

KB is entitled to purchase works on behalf of the Netherlands and receives an annual amount 

earmarked for that purpose.

11 According to the KB’s website, 90% of all Dutch publications can 

be found in the Deposit Collection.12

Certain publications are not collected by the KB. These include 

• certain physical works, namely provincial, regional, or local government reports, advisory 

letters, university term papers, publicity material, internal business information, and free 

local papers;

13

• electronic application programs and games;

14 and

 6 Higher Education and Research Act, art. 1.5, para. 2; Public Library Services Act, arts. 4, 5, 9.

7 Public Library Provisions Systems Act, art. 9, let. b.

8 INGEBORG VERHEUL, NETWORKING FOR DIGITAL PRESERVATION: CURRENT PRACTICE IN 15 NATIONAL LIBRARIES

145 (2006), https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/publications/ifla-publications-series-119.pdf, archived at

http://perma.cc/GGC4-B9KN; Deposit Library for Dutch Publications, KB, https://www.kb.nl/en/organisation/forpublishers/deposit-library-for-dutch-publications (last visited Apr. 10, 2018), archived at http://perma.cc/LL3Y6HHQ.

9 VERHEUL, supra note 8, at 145; Deposit Library for Dutch Publications, KB, supra note 8.

10 Depositing Publications, KB, https://www.kb.nl/en/organisation/for-publishers/depositing-publications (last 

visited Apr. 10, 2018), archived at http://perma.cc/7DPN-JRRA.

11 Public Library Provisions Systems Act, art. 18.

12 Deposit Library for Dutch Publications, KB, supra note 8.

13 Selection Criteria National Deposit Collection, KB, https://www.kb.nl/en/organisation/for-publishers/depositingpublications/selection-criteria-national-deposit-collection (last visited Apr. 10, 2018), archived at 

http://perma.cc/T3M2-HD93. 
Digital Legal Deposit: Netherlands

The Law Library of Congress 45

• dynamic databases, due to practical reasons, as they are frequently changing.15 The KB and 

publishers, however, are looking into ways to store and make them accessible in the future.

16

III. Collecting and Accessing Digital Publications

In 1996, a voluntary program for e-publications such as CD-ROMs and magnetic disks was 

launched. In 1999, the KB and the Netherlands Publisher’s Association concluded an agreement 

on depositing all electronic publications with a Dutch imprint at the KB.

17 The agreement

provided that the publishers would generally provide electronic publications free of charge.

18

Deposited material may only be accessed on-site by authorized users, meaning staff members of 

the KB and library pass holders.19 The KB abides by the terms of delivery of the respective 

publisher.20 Remote access to deposited publications is only provided if expressly authorized by 

the publishers.21 Printing a small part of the work or some articles for one’s own use is permitted 

in accordance with copyright legislation, meaning a maximum of 10,000 words from each 

publication.22 Since the library monitors the visitors’ fee-based printing, abuses can 

be prevented.23

In 2002/2003, bilateral agreements were concluded with Elsevier and Kluwer Academic—

international publishers with a head office in the Netherlands—to submit all journals 

electronically.

24 The Library is still continuing this arrangement and has enlisted the support of 

preservation services provider Portico to preserve e-journals from these publisher and several 

 14 Arrangement for Depositing Electronic Publications at the Deposit of Netherlands Publications in the Koninklijke 

Bibliotheek 3 (June 10, 1999), https://www.kb.nl/sites/default/files/docs/overeenkomst-nuv-kb-en.pdf, archived at

http://perma.cc/6WE8-9QA4.

15 Id. at 3.

16 Email from Gert-Jan van Velzen, Account Manager, Collection Department, National Library of the Netherlands, 

to Johannes Jaeger, Foreign Law Intern, Law Library of Congress (Mar. 26, 2018) (on file with author).

17 Arrangement for Depositing Electronic Publications at the Deposit of Netherlands Publications in the Koninklijke 

Bibliotheek, supra note 16.

18 Id. at 2 (“The government’s financing of the KB assumes that the publishers will, in principle, hand over their 

publications ‘gratis’.”).

19 Id. at 2, 4.

20 Id.

21 Id.

22 Id.; Auteurswet [Copyright Act], Sept. 23, 1912, STB. 1912, no. 308, art. 16b, http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR00 

01886/2017-09-01, archived at http://perma.cc/8VCE-2Z6U, unofficial English translation at https://www.ivir.nl/ 

syscontent/pdfs/119.pdf, archived at http://perma.cc/6WY4-FZS8. 

23 Arrangement for Depositing Electronic Publications at the Deposit of Netherlands Publications in the Koninklijke 

Bibliotheek, supra note 14, at 4.

24 Email from Gert-Jan van Velzen, supra note 16.
Digital Legal Deposit: Netherlands

The Law Library of Congress 46

other major international publishers.25 In 2006, the KB supposedly had the world’s largest digital 

archive for scientific, technical, and medical publishing, which is called the e-Depot.

26

According to the KB’s strategic plan for 2015–2018, one of its priorities is “to realize the 

national digital library.”27 This involves combining the digital collections in the Dutch public 

libraries with the one in the national library.28 In addition to that, the KB aims to digitally 

preserve all publications from or about the Netherlands already held and store all magazines 

from the Directory of Open Access Journals by 2018. The KB’s digital repository will then 

comprise 95% of the articles of the large publishers. They will be made available for on-site use 

at the KB.29

IV. Submitting Electronic Publications

Currently, there are three ways in which publishers can deposit digital publications in the KB’s 

e-Depot system:

• Firstly, e-books are being stored in the KB’s e-Depot via an e-book platform. The KB’s 

partner for this purpose is the company Central Bookhouse, which is the largest distribution 

center of books and e-books in the Netherlands. Central Bookhouse includes the ISBN and 

separately delivers all metadata of e-books with ISBNs. Publishers are asked for permission 

before the KB stores these e-books.

30

• Secondly, the KB offers a web-based application form. Publishers can upload their digital ebooks and digital magazines together with the metadata. This platform is intended for smaller 

publishers who are not connected with Central Bookhouse and for foundations, associations,

and individual authors.31

• Thirdly, for larger (international) publishers the KB offers the possibility of File Transfer 

Protocol (FTP)-transfer where the KB automatically receives the scientific journal articles 

from the publishers’ databases together with the necessary metadata.32

 25 Press Release, KB, National Library of the Netherlands – Portico Partnership (May 28, 2015), https://www.kb. 

nl/en/news/2015/national-library-of-the-netherlands-portico-partnership, archived at http://perma.cc/643P-RF3F; 

Email from Gert-Jan van Velzen, supra note 16.

26 VERHEUL, supra note 8, at 145–48.

27 KB, THE POWER OF OUR NETWORK. STRATEGIC PLAN 2015–2018 at 2, https://www.kb.nl/sites/default/files/docs/ 

strategicplan-2015-2018.pdf, archived at http://perma.cc/U9J8-F5H5.

28 Id. at 14.

29 Id. at 17–18.

30 Email from Gert-Jan van Velzen, supra note 16. For the e-book platform provided by Central Bookhouse, see

https://www.cb.nl/en/, archived at http://perma.cc/8LYK-DJ8R. 

31 Id.; Depositing Individual Digital Publications, KB, https://www.kb.nl/en/organisation/for-publishers/depositingpublications/depositing-individual-digital-publications (last visited Apr. 9, 2018), archived at

http://perma.cc/2WVK-A9L4. 

32 Email from Gert-Jan van Velzen, supra note 16.
Digital Legal Deposit: Netherlands

The Law Library of Congress 47

Scientific electronic publications from Dutch universities and other scientific research 

institutions do not need to be deposited as they are automatically retrieved (harvested) by the KB

from the repository of the institution concerned on the basis of the above-mentioned 

mutual agreements.33

V. Web Crawling

In 2007, the KB started archiving selected Dutch websites. As of January 2018, the Library had

harvested 13,200 websites totaling 32 terabytes (TB) of data, preserved them, and made them 

accessible to readers on the KB’s premises.34 The Library mostly selects websites with cultural 

and academic content, but also includes ones that are innovative, popular, or relevant for Dutch 

society, like sports pages.35

The KB points out that as there is no mandatory legal deposit requirement in the Netherlands, 

copyright owners may not always agree to have their websites harvested and made available on a 

permanent basis by the KB.

36 To cope with these issues, the KB enlisted the Center for Law in 

the Information Society (Centrum voor Recht in de Informatiemaatschappij) at Leiden 

University to study the legal issues involved under Dutch law.37 The study concludes that from 

the point of copyright law, the KB is not entitled to harvest a website without the prior 

permission of the respective right holder. The authors of the study state that the opt-out practice 

envisaged by the KB might violate Dutch copyright law, but that Dutch courts could possibly 

deviate from this view because of the new developments of a modern, digitalized society.38

The KB has adopted the following approach to archiving websites:

• Website owners are notified before the Library harvests the respective site and are granted 

the opportunity to make objections (opt-out approach).

• If such objections are not made within a specified time frame, the KB assumes implicit or 

tacit permission for harvesting.

39

 33 Id; Depositing Individual Digital Publications, KB, supra note 31. 

34 Web Archiving, KB, https://www.kb.nl/en/organisation/research-expertise/long-term-usability-of-digitalresources/web-archiving (last visited Apr. 10, 2018), archived at http://perma.cc/Q5KA-EPVD. 

35 Selection, KB, https://www.kb.nl/en/organisation/research-expertise/long-term-usability-of-digital-resources/webarchiving/selection (last visited Apr. 10, 2018), archived at http://perma.cc/5GKL-BZ6J. 

36 Legal Issues, KB, https://www.kb.nl/en/organisation/research-expertise/long-term-usability-of-digitalresources/web-archiving/legal-issues (last visited Apr. 10, 2018), archived at http://perma.cc/AK2J-FSXM. 

37 Annemarie Beunen & Tjeerd Schiphof, Legal Aspects of Web Archiving from a Dutch Perspective. Report 

Commissioned by the National Library in The Hague (Oct. 4, 2006), https://www.kb.nl/sites/default/files/ 

docs/KB_Legal_Aspects_WebArchiving_EN.pdf, archived at http://perma.cc/Y53U-NSGS. 

38 Id. at 17.

39 Legal Issues, KB, supra note 36.
Digital Legal Deposit: Netherlands

The Law Library of Congress 48

By asking permission, the KB hopes to prevent legal action.40 The KB is aware that this 

pragmatic approach might be problematic and is therefore looking into the idea of introducing 

mandatory legal deposit that is primarily focused on web archiving.41

VI. Statistics

As of 2016, the physical collection comprised over 7 million printed items. In addition, 2.6 

million digital articles and 2,500 e-books were loaded, and 1,800 new websites were stored.

42 As 

of March 2018, the KB manages approximately 431,509,000 files. The number of files is not 

equivalent to the number of electronic publications.43 The current total storage volume of 

electronic publications is approximately 34.68 TB.44 In the fourth quarter of 2017, a total of 

3,008 requests were made from the e-Depot system.

45

 40 Email from Gert-Jan van Velzen, supra note 16.

41 Id.

42 KB in a Nutshell, KB, supra note 1.

43 Email from Gert-Jan van Velzen, Account Manager, Collection Department, National Library of the Netherlands, 

to Johannes Jaeger, Foreign Law Intern, Law Library of Congress (Mar. 29, 2018) (on file with author).

44 Id.

45 Id.
The Law Library of Congress 49

New Zealand

Kelly Buchanan

Chief, Foreign, Comparative, and

International Law Division I

SUMMARY The National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ) has been implementing a legal requirement 

for publishers to deposit digital materials that meet the definition of a “public document”

since 2006. Publishers must generally provide two copies of the medium or device 

containing the document within twenty days of publication, with the NLNZ providing a legal 

deposit form and dedicated email address for the submission of documents, as well as several 

alternative submission options.

The NLNZ is also authorized to copy any internet document and can therefore harvest any 

website produced in New Zealand without seeking permission from the publisher or website 

owner. The NLNZ has been selectively harvesting websites since 1999, and allows people 

to nominate websites for harvesting. In addition, it has adopted “whole of domain 

harvesting” for the .NZ domain, and has been running such a harvest annually since 2015.

Where a digital document is commercially available or otherwise restricted, the NLNZ only 

enables three people at a time to access it in its reading room. Open-access documents and 

websites harvested on a selective basis are made available on the NLNZ website.

Electronic publications collected by the NLNZ are held in the National Digital Heritage 

Archive for long-term digital preservation. The NLNZ website provides technical 

information regarding the preservation and security of such publications.

I. Introduction

A requirement to deposit digital materials with the National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ) came 

into effect in August 2006 through the issuance of the National Library Requirement Electronic 

Documents) Notice 2006 (2006 Notice).

1 The Notice was authorized by part 4 of the National 

Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) Act 2003 (NLNZ Act), which states 

that the relevant government minister may, by a notice in the Gazette, require a publisher of a 

“public document” to provide copies to the National Librarian, either in printed form or, if the 

document is an “electronic document,” by providing the medium that contains the document.2

A “public document” means a document of which one or more copies are issued to the public, 

available to the public on request, or available to the public on the internet, and that is printed or 

produced in New Zealand, or commissioned to be published in another country by a New Zealand 

 1 National Library Requirement (Electronic Documents) Notice 2006 (SR 2006/118), http://legislation.govt.nz/ 

regulation/public/2006/0118/latest/whole.html, archived at https://perma.cc/92A6-NN4E. 

2 National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) Act 2003 (NLNZ Act), s 29(1), 

http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2003/0019/latest/whole.html, archived at https://perma.cc/64SZ-3QZ8. 
Digital Legal Deposit: New Zealand

The Law Library of Congress 50

resident or business, and in which copyright exists under the Copyright Act 1994.3 An “electronic 

document” is a “public document in which information is stored or displayed by means of an 

electronic recording device, computer, or other electronic medium, and includes an 

Internet document.”4

In addition, the NLNZ Act states that the minister may authorize the National Librarian “to make 

a copy, at any time or times and at his or her discretion, of public documents that are Internet 

documents in accordance with any terms and conditions as to format, public access, or other 

matters that are specified in the notice.”5 An “Internet document” is “a public document that is 

published on the Internet, whether or not there is any restriction on access to the document; and 

includes the whole or part of a website.”6 The 2006 Notice subsequently authorized the National 

Librarian to “copy any Internet document.”7

The NLNZ’s strategic directions to 2030 include the collection of and access to digital materials 

within the different focus areas, as follows:

• “Born digital content reflecting contemporary New Zealand life and knowledge will be readily 

available for access and research.”8

• “New Zealand’s collecting institutions will have access to expertise to use new technologies 

and tools that preserve digital heritage. Organisations will integrate digital preservation into 

their collecting policies and professional capabilities to maintain access to collections in 

the future.”9

• “New Zealand knowledge resources available from libraries, educational, cultural and research 

institutions will be digitally accessible to all New Zealanders.”10

The NLNZ’s 2016–2018 collection plan for New Zealand and Pacific published materials states 

that, with respect to electronic publications, “[t]he sheer volume of online content in scope for 

legal deposit makes it impossible for the Library to be comprehensive in its collecting of such 

material, but it does aim to build a significant collection which is representative of New Zealand’s 

 3 Id.; Copyright Act 1994, http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1994/0143/latest/whole.html, archived at 

https://perma.cc/D24F-YN4B. See also Publications Covered by Legal Deposit, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/ 

publishers-and-authors/legal-deposit/publications-covered-by-legal-deposit (last visited Mar. 16, 2018), archived at

https://perma.cc/R6Q3-XK2P. 

4 NLNZ Act, s 29(1).

5 Id. s 31(3).

6 Id. s 29(1).

7 National Library Requirement (Electronic Documents) Notice 2006, cl 8.

8 Strategic Directions to 2030: Taonga, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/about-us/strategy-and-policy/strategicdirections/taonga (last visited Apr. 17, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/8XR5-RBFT. 

9 Id.

10 Strategic Directions to 2030: Knowledge, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/about-us/strategy-and-policy/strategicdirections/knowledge (last visited Apr. 17, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/C4RV-9EDY. 
Digital Legal Deposit: New Zealand

The Law Library of Congress 51

published documentary heritage.”11 It further states that not all websites can be collected and 

therefore the NLNZ “chooses to prioritise websites to collect around certain subjects or themes.”12

II. Digital Legal Deposit Requirements and Processes

The legal deposit requirements, including those relating to digital items, apply to all New Zealand 

publishers.13 “Publisher” is broadly defined in the legislation to mean,

(a) in relation to a printed public document, the publisher of that document; and

(b) in relation to any other public document other than an Internet document, the person 

who produced in New Zealand, or commissioned the production outside New Zealand 

of, the copies of the document issued to, or available on request by, the public; and

(c) in relation to an Internet document, the person who has control over the content of the 

website, or part of the website, on which the document is located14

A. Deposit of Electronic Documents

The 2006 Notice contains the following requirement for publishers to provide copies of “off-line 

documents” to the National Librarian:

Every publisher of an off-line document must, at the publisher’s own expense, give to the 

National Librarian, within 20 working days after the date when the document is first 

published, 1 or more copies of the document as follows:

(a) 2 copies of the medium or device that contains the document; or

(b) 1 copy of the medium or device that contains the document, if—

(i) the document is a single discrete item the price of which exceeds $1,000; or

(ii) the document is available for an annual subscription that exceeds $3,000.15

“Off-line documents” are electronic documents that are not internet documents and include 

documents that are stored or used by means such as magnetic media, optical media, or an electronic 

storage device.16

Both this requirement and the ability for the National Librarian to copy internet documents (see 

Part II(B), below) apply to previously published documents, with the Notice stating that it “applies 

 11 Collecting Plan – New Zealand and Pacific Published Collections: 2016-2018, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/ 

about-us/strategy-and-policy/collections-policy/newzealand-pacific (last visited Apr. 16, 2018), archived at 

https://perma.cc/SV3C-EDV2. 

12 Id.

13 Legal Deposit, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/publishers-and-authors/legal-deposit (last visited Mar. 16, 2018), 

archived at https://perma.cc/3A7E-35UG. 

14 NLNZ Act, s 29(1).

15 National Library Requirement (Electronic Documents) Notice 2006, cl 5.

16 Id. cl 3.
Digital Legal Deposit: New Zealand

The Law Library of Congress 52

to all classes of electronic documents in existence on, or coming into existence after, the date on 

which this notice comes into force and all publishers of those electronic documents.”17

The NLNZ website advises publishers to complete the legal deposit form and email this, together 

with their digital publication, to a designated email address.18 In addition, publishers have the 

following alternative options for depositing their online documents:

We can either download your publication from the Internet, if we know it is available, or 

you can send it to us directly. You can:

• Email us at eld@dia.govt.nz to notify us where we can download it. You may need to 

provide us with membership or other means of access if it is restricted.

• Email it as an attachment to eld@dia.govt.nz – maximum file size 20MB.

• Transfer it to us via Dropbox or another cloud service. You can:

• upload your files to a service of your choice and provide eld@dia.govt.nz with 

access, or

• deposit directly to our Dropbox using our Dropbox File Request portal, which lets you 

upload multiple files straight from your computer without requiring your own Dropbox 

account.

• Deposit very large files or a large number of files using our FTP server. Email 

legaldeposit@dia.govt.nz to request access.

• Post your electronic publications to us, or drop them in on a physical carrier such as 

CD-ROM or USB drive. See the instructions for physical publications above, and 

please let us know whether you want the carrier returned to you.

• If you were previously a user of our Web Deposit Tool,[19] please note that this has 

been discontinued. Please use one of the above options or email 

legaldeposit@dia.govt.nz for advice.

• If your digital publication is paywalled, restricted to membership, or not freely 

available for any other reason, please make sure you let us know so that we can archive 

it under Restricted Access conditions.20

Publishers are also advised to provide their documents without any Digital Rights Management or 

other technical usage restrictions and certain file formats are also suggested. If a publisher is unable 

to deposit a digital document in any of the above ways they can contact the NLNZ, which states 

that “[o]ur research and development staff love the challenge of new formats.”21

 17 Id. cl 4.

18 Legal Deposit, supra note 13.

19 See NLNZ, HOW TO DEPOSIT DIGITAL CONTENT TO THE NATIONAL LIBRARY VIA THE WEB DEPOSIT TOOL (2008), 

https://natlib.govt.nz/system/resources/BAhbBlsHOgZmSSI8MjAxMi8xMC8xOC8xM18xMF8yMV8xNDBfd2ViX

2RlcG9zaXRfdG9vbF91c2VyX2d1aWRlLnBkZgY6BkVU/web-deposit-tool-user-guide.pdf, archived at

https://perma.cc/NZ74-42QQ. 

20 Submitting Your Publication: Online Digital Publications, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/publishers-and-authors/ 

legal-deposit/submitting-your-publication#online (last visited Mar. 16, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/4TX9-

3CA7. 

21 Id.
Digital Legal Deposit: New Zealand

The Law Library of Congress 53

B. Web Archiving

As noted above, the 2006 Notice states simply that “[t]he National Librarian is authorised to copy 

any Internet document.”22 The definition of “Internet document” in the NLNZ Act, together with 

the definition of “public document,” essentially means that the NLNZ can harvest any website 

produced or hosted in New Zealand.

Previously, the NLNZ started selectively harvesting websites for archiving in 1999.23 The 

information regarding its current approach to web archiving includes the following:

Most web harvesting is undertaken on a selective basis by the Alexander Turnbull Library. 

These websites form the New Zealand Web Archive, which is part of the Alexander 

Turnbull Library’s published collections.

Special harvests of the .NZ domain have been undertaken by the National Library every 

couple of years since 2008. These provide snapshots of the New Zealand Internet. The 

domain harvests are not currently available to the public.24

People are invited to nominate websites to be added to the collection using an online form.

25 This 

includes Pacific Island websites or websites of New Zealanders that are published overseas, 

outside of the .NZ domain. A permissions process is followed for overseas websites that are not 

covered by the legal deposit legislation.

In addition to selective harvesting, the NLNZ’s “whole of domain harvest,” referred to above, 

“recognises the importance of the internet in all areas of New Zealand society and culture by taking 

a ‘snapshot’ of the whole .nz domain as it exists on the web during the time of harvesting. The 

Library’s first domain harvest took place in 2008. Further harvests were run in 2010 and 2013. 

They have been run annually since 2015.”26 With regard to the technical parameters for the harvest, 

the NLNZ states that these were developed after consultation with the public and internet 

stakeholder groups, and include the following:

• Websites that fall under the .nz country code

• Websites that fall under .com, .net and .org that can be programmatically determined 

to be hosted on machines that are physically located in New Zealand

 22 National Library Requirement (Electronic Documents) Notice 2006, cl 8.

23 New Zealand Web Archive, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/collections/a-z/new-zealand-web-archive (last visited 

Mar. 16, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/K5E8-8M56. 

24 Web Harvesting, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/publishers-and-authors/web-harvesting (last visited Mar. 16, 2018), 

archived at https://perma.cc/FCK5-9FDA. 

25 Web Archive Nomination Form, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/forms/web-archive-nomination (last visited Mar. 16, 

2018), archived at https://perma.cc/M4XT-T73Z. 

26 Whole of Domain Web Harvest, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/publishers-and-authors/web-harvesting/domainharvest (last visited Mar. 16, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/F3RR-2TNC. 
Digital Legal Deposit: New Zealand

The Law Library of Congress 54

• Selected websites based overseas that are covered by the provisions of the National

Library of New Zealand Act (2003)27

The Internet Archive, a US-based not-for-profit entity, is commissioned to perform the harvest. 

The data acquired during harvests is stored at the NLNZ and can be viewed in its reading rooms.28

The NLNZ website also provides general technical information for webmasters, including design 

tips for making websites preservable.29 

III. Access and Preservation

The NLNZ Act requires that publishers provide assistance in relation to the storage and use of 

electronic documents, stating, 

(1) If, at any time, the National Librarian makes a written request for assistance, a publisher

of an electronic document to which a requirement relates must, at the publisher’s own

expense, provide reasonable assistance within 20 working days of receiving the request to

enable the National Librarian to store and use an identical copy of the document.

(2) A written request under subsection (1) may relate to—

(a) 1 or more electronic documents; or

(b) 1 or more classes of electronic documents.30

A. Access to Electronic Documents

In terms of access, the NLNZ Act provides that, with respect to the use of public documents

deposited with the NLNZ, 

(2) For the purposes of carrying out his or her duties, the National Librarian and any

employee, contractor, or agent of the chief executive may possess, copy, store in electronic

form (whether offline or online), and use any copy of a deposited document.

(3) The National Librarian may provide not more than 3 copies of a deposited document

for use by members of the public (whether at the premises of the National Library or

elsewhere) but, except as provided in subsection (4) or with the publishers agreement, must

not make the document available on the Internet.

(4) If a deposited document is made publicly available on the Internet by the publisher

without restriction on its access or use by members of the public, the National Librarian

may make the document available for access and use by members of the public on the

Internet (as well as in the manner permitted by subsection (3)).

27 Id.

28 Id.

29 Web Harvesting, supra note 24. 

30 NLNZ Act, s 33.
Digital Legal Deposit: New Zealand

The Law Library of Congress 55

(5) Except as provided in subsections (2) to (4), the law relating to copyright applies to 

every deposited document.31

The legal deposit information on the NLNZ website states that,

[i]f access to your publication is restricted, for example because it’s commercially 

available, it can only be accessed in the Katherine Mansfield Reading Room at the National 

Library in Wellington, by up to 3 people at once.

If it is open access because it is openly available online or you’ve given permission, anyone 

can access the Legal Deposit copy via a link in our online catalogue. We can also link to 

your website.32

B. Security and Preservation 

The NLNZ website provides detailed information about how it manages the security of electronic 

publications collected under legal deposit.33 The introductory statement on this topic includes 

the following:

Electronic publications collected by the Library are held in the National Digital Heritage 

Archive, for long-term digital preservation. It uses the ExLibris Rosetta application. The 

system backend, including servers and physical storage is managed by an external supplier 

of Infrastructure as a Service to Government.

The Archive has been developed in accordance with best practice standards and guidelines 

for a trusted digital repository, and the Department is currently instituting an ongoing 

security roadmap for the Archive.34

The NLNZ website also provides technical information regarding the preservation of born-digital 

and digitized items that it collects or creates.35 Furthermore, a dedicated website regarding the 

digital preservation program at the NLNZ36 provides information about the tools and manuals used

in the program,

37 current projects,38 and the NLNZ’s involvement and contribution to international 

 31 Id. s 34.

32 Legal Deposit, supra note 13.

33 Electronic Publication Security, NLNZ (June 2016), https://natlib.govt.nz/publishers-and-authors/legal-deposit/ 

electronic-publication-security, archived at https://perma.cc/V98C-YSEM. 

34 Id.

35 Preserving Digital Objects, NLNZ, https://natlib.govt.nz/publishers-and-authors/legal-deposit/preserving-digitalobjects (last visited Mar. 16, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/6F6B-GD4Q. 

36 Home, DIGITAL PRESERVATION PROGRAMME, NLNZ, https://digitalpreservation.natlib.govt.nz/ (last modified 

Mar. 5, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/N8WW-9NSC. 

37 Preservation Tools and Manuals, DIGITAL PRESERVATION PROGRAMME, NLNZ, https://digitalpreservation.natlib. 

govt.nz/tools-and-manuals/ (last modified Dec. 12, 2017), archived at https://perma.cc/P8TY-X29P. 

38 Current Projects, DIGITAL PRESERVATION PROGRAMME, NLNZ, https://digitalpreservation.natlib.govt.nz/currentprojects/ (last modified Dec. 1, 2017), archived at https://perma.cc/3F8V-KFAA. 
Digital Legal Deposit: New Zealand

The Law Library of Congress 56

developments in this area.39 It also provides access to the guiding documents for the program,40

including a 2011 Digital Preservation Strategy41 and Digital Preservation Policy Manual (both 

produced jointly by the NLNZ and Archives New Zealand).

42

39 Community Participation, DIGITAL PRESERVATION PROGRAMME, NLNZ, https://digitalpreservation.natlib. 

govt.nz/community-participation/ (last modified Dec. 12, 2017), archived at https://perma.cc/G9XS-RX2Y. 

40 Strategic Documents, DIGITAL PRESERVATION PROGRAMME, NLNZ, https://digitalpreservation.natlib. 

govt.nz/about-2/strategic-documents/ (last modified Jan. 11, 2017), archived at https://perma.cc/X2EY-ZL26. 

41 ARCHIVES NEW ZEALAND & NLNZ, DIGITAL PRESERVATION STRATEGY (June 2011), https://digitalpreservation. 

natlib.govt.nz/assets/NDHA/DigitalPreservationAtTheNationalLibrary/Digital_Preservation_Strategy.pdf, archived 

at https://perma.cc/KN8V-7NZN. 

42 ARCHIVES NEW ZEALAND & NLNZ, DIGITAL PRESERVATION POLICY MANUAL (rev. Nov. 7, 2012), https://digital 

preservation.natlib.govt.nz/assets/NDHA/About-Us/Strategic-Partnerships/Digital-Preservation-Policy-Manual.pdf, 

archived at https://perma.cc/DR4F-6727. 
The Law Library of Congress 57

Norway

Elin Hofverberg

Foreign Law Research Consultant

I. Mandatory Deposit Laws

Norway has a mandatory deposit law that has as its purpose “secur[ing] the accumulation and 

storage of publicly available information for national collections, in order that [the information]

that bears witness to Norwegian culture and society may be preserved and accessed as source 

material for research and documentation.”1 Current legislation requires that seven copies of both 

physical and digital materials that have been made available for the public be deposited with 

institutions in Norway.2 When a physical copy is deposited the National Library of Norway may 

also require that the underlying digital copy of the media be deposited (for instance, the digital 

version of a book).3

Most published material is subject to the deposit mandate, but publications of, for example,

membership lists are not intended to be covered by the requirement.4 Media that is published 

abroad need only be deposited if either the publisher is Norwegian or the material specifically 

targets Norwegians.5 The National Library oversees the enforcement of depository laws.6

The depository requirement must be fulfilled by the publisher, producer, or importer of the 

document.7 Upon the death of the depositor, his or her estate must fulfill the deposit requirement. 

Similarly, bankruptcy estates must fulfill the deposit requirement.8

 1 § 1 LOV OM AVLEVERINGSPLIKT FOR ALLMENT TILGJENGELEGE DOKUMENT (PLIKTAVLEVERINGSLOVA) (LOV 1989-

06-09-32) [ACT ON MANDATORY DEPOSITS FOR PUBLISHED MATERIAL (Act No. 32 of June 9, 1989)] § 1, 

https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1989-06-09-32, archived at https://perma.cc/6MHY-5APD (translation 

by author). 

2 § 4 PLIKTAVLEVERINGSLOVA (emphasis by author).

3 DET KONGELEGE KULTURDEPARTEMENTET [ROYAL DANISH MINISTRY OF CULTURE], PROPOSJON [PROP.] 106 L

(2014–2015): ENDRINGAR I LOV OM AVLEVERINGSPLIKT FOR ALLMENT TILGJENGELEGE DOKUMENT (INNSAMLING AV 

DIGITALE DOKUMENT M.M.) [GOVERNMENT BILL 106 L (2014–2015): CHANGES IN THE MANDATARY DEPOSIT ACT

(COLLECTION OF DIGITAL MATERIAL ETC.)] at 47, https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/a660c098687e4e7 

f84fbd5908d122412/nn-no/pdfs/prp201420150106000dddpdfs.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/ZP5E-2FBH. 

4 Id. 

5 § 4 mom. 2 PLIKTAVLEVERINGSLOVA.

6 Art. I Instruks for institusjonar som forvaltar dokument innkomne etter lov om avleveringsplikt for allment 

tilgjengelege document (FOR-1990-05-25-4696) [Regulation for Institutions that Maintain Documents Received in 

Accordance with the Act on Mandatory Deposits (Regulation No. 4696 of May 25, 1990)], https://lovdata.no/ 

dokument/INS/forskrift/1990-05-25-4696, archived at https://perma.cc/XM52-Q35V. 

7 § 5 PLIKTAVLEVERINGSLOVA.

8 § 6 PLIKTAVLEVERINGSLOVA.
Digital Legal Deposit: Norway

The Law Library of Congress 58

Deposits are made to the National Library of Norway, which retains two copies for its collection 

and distributes the remaining deposits to the following institutions: 

• University of Oslo Library

• University of Bergen Library

• Norwegian University of Science and Technology Library

• University of Tromsø Library

• Sami Library (if the title includes content in the Sami language)9

II. Online Access

The National Library of Norway has been prioritizing digital content. For instance, it hosts an elibrary of digitized books at Bokhylla.no (bokhylla is Norwegian for “bookshelf”), which provides 

access to digital copies of Norwegian library holdings to persons using Norwegian IP-addresses.

10

The National Library has made it a priority is digitize all books published prior to 2000 and make 

them available online.11 The National Library’s ultimate goal is reportedly to digitize its 

entire collection.12 

9 § 4 mom. 1 PLIKTAVLEVERINGSLOVA; Art. IV Instruks for institusjonar som forvaltar dokument innkomne etter lov 

om avleveringsplikt for allment tilgjengelege document.

10 See BOKHYLLA.NO, https://www.nb.no/search?mediatype=bøker. 

11 Mandat og strategi, NASJONALBIBLIOTEKET, https://www.nb.no/om-nb/hva-og-hvem-er-vi/mandat-og-strategi

(last visited Apr. 11, 2018). 

12 Digitizing Policy, NASJONALBIBLIOTEKET, https://www.nb.no/English/The-Digital-Library/Digitizing-policy (last 

visited Apr. 11, 2018). For more on the Norwegian National Library’s work with digitization see https://www.nb.no/ 

om-nb/digitalisering-2 (in Norwegian).
The Law Library of Congress 59

South Korea

Sayuri Umeda

Foreign Law Specialist*

The National Library of Korea collects and preserves online materials highly worth preserving, 

from among those published in the Republic of Korea.1 When the collection of online materials 

is restricted by a technical protective measure, the National Library may request the cooperation 

of the relevant online materials provider. An online materials provider who receives the request 

must comply with the request unless there is a compelling reason not to do so.2 If all or some of 

online materials are for sale, the National Library must make due compensation for such 

online materials.3

The Library Material Deliberative Committee deliberates on those matters necessary for a 

determination of the selection, types, and forms of online library materials subject to legal deposit, 

and their collection procedures.4 The online materials collected by the National Library include 

websites or web resources created in electronic forms, including text, audio, video, or images.

5

The National Library issues a library material collection certificate to online materials providers

when the materials they offer for sale have been collected.

6 Those providers may then submit a 

claim for compensation with the National Library.

7 Upon receipt of a claim for compensation, the 

Chief Executive of the Library provides compensation for the collected materials at market value.8

If there is a considerable difference between the market value of the material and the actual 

transaction (sale) price of similar materials, or it is agreed that compensation at market value is not 

reasonable, the Library Material Deliberative Committee will determine the amount 

of compensation.9

 * At present there are no Law Library of Congress research staff members versed in Korean. This report has been 

prepared by the author’s reliance on practiced legal research methods and on the basis of relevant legal resources, 

chiefly in English, currently available in the Law Library and online.

1 도서관법 [Library Act], Act No. 8029, Oct. 4, 2006, amended by Act No. 15167, Dec. 12, 2017, art. 20-2, para. 1. 

2 Id. art. 20-2, para. 2.

3 Id. art. 20-2, para. 5.

4 도서관법 시행령 [Enforcement Decree of the Library Act], Presidential Decree No. 19963, Mar. 27, 2007, 

amended by Presidential Decree No. 28211, Jul. 26, 2017, art. 13-3, para. 1. 

5 Id. art. 13-2, para. 1; Notification by the National Library of Korea, No. 2011-1, Attachment, Jan. 3, 2011.

6 Enforcement Decree of the Library Act art. 13-2, para. 2. 

7 Id. art. 13-4, para. 1. 

8 Id. art. 13-4, para. 2. 

9 Id. art. 13-4, para. 3. 
Digital Legal Deposit: South Korea

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In 2015, 68,408 e-books, 602 audio books (2,251 items), and 296 videos (1,047 items) were 

collected, and a total of 1,000,000,000 won (about US$939,000) was spent for their purchase or 

for compensation.

10

 10 2015 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF KOREA § 4.1.2 (May 31, 2016), http://www.nl.go.kr/ 

upload/nl/pds/research_data/year_2015/seji_report.html (in Korean), archived at https://perma.cc/7BGQ-TXHM. 
The Law Library of Congress 61

Spain

Graciela Rodriguez-Ferrand

Senior Foreign Law Specialist

SUMMARY The National Library of Spain and those appointed by the autonomous communities are 

responsible for the deposit of online publications and determine the priorities for 

preservation. Ley 23/2011 on Legal Deposit includes electronic publications among the 

publications subject to legal deposit. Real Decreto 635/2015 regulating legal deposit of 

online publications identifies the entities required to make such deposits, the materials

subject to and excluded from legal deposit, and the rules applicable to the management of 

the legal deposit of online publications.

I. Online Deposit Rules

Real Decreto (Royal Decree) 635/2015 regulates the legal deposit of online publications in Spain.

1

The Decree implements Ley (Law) 23/2011 on Legal Deposit providing that websites and online 

publications are subject to legal deposit in furtherance of the obligation to preserve bibliographic, 

sound, visual, audiovisual, or digital heritage pertaining to the cultures of Spain.

2

The deposit of online publications is not entrusted to publishers, but to the National Library of 

Spain and those appointed by the autonomous communities within the scope of their competencies, 

who determine the priorities for preservation.

3

Information or content of any nature circulated via a nontangible electronic medium, archived in

a particular format that may be managed and differentiated, and that is subject to circulation is 

considered an online publication.

4 Websites are also considered to be online publications.5

 

Real Decreto 635/2015 regulates the deposit of online publications, while deposit of electronic 

publications of tangible media publications like books, magazines, CDs, or DVDs are governed

by provisions in Law 23/2011.

6 Under Law 23/2011, publishers domiciled or with their permanent 

business in Spain are responsible for the legal deposit of electronic copies of traditional 

 1 Real Decreto 635/2015 por el que se Regula el Depósito Legal de las Publicaciones en Línea [Royal Decree 

635/2015 Regulating the Legal Deposit of Online Publications], BOLETIN OFICIAL DEL ESTADO [B.O.E.], July 27, 

2015, https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2015-8338, archived at https://perma.cc/Y76X-2WJE.

2 Id. art. 1; Ley 23/2011 de Depósito Legal [Law on Legal Deposit], B.O.E., July 30, 2011, https://www.boe.es/ 

buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2011-13114, archived at https://perma.cc/K3A8-8FFX.

3 Real Decreto 635/2015, art. 6(1)–(2).

4 Id. art. 2(e).

5 Id.

6 Id. art. 1(2).
Digital Legal Deposit: Spain

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publications, regardless of the printing location.7 In case the publisher does not reside or have a 

branch in Spain, the individual or company in charge of its printing or production with permanent 

residence in Spain is responsible to comply with the requirements.

8

 Publishers are subject to a 

fine in case of noncompliance.

9

 

Legal deposit of electronic publications has to be done in such a way that a password would not 

be necessary to access its content and with a manual and software that would enable access thereto 

for research and preservation purposes.10 When making the legal deposit, the responsible person 

is required to provide the information necessary for the transfer of data from the original format to 

the preservation support format.11 Additionally, if the electronic publication has an expiration date, 

its content must be transferred in order to be accessed with no time restrictions.12 

Websites and publications contained therein are subject to legal deposit, regardless of whether 

access is free or restricted, provided they contain bibliographic, audio, visual, audiovisual, or 

digital Spanish cultural heritage and are published in any official language of Spain; are published 

or edited by an individual or company with residence or a permanent establishment in Spain; or 

have a domain name linked to the territory of Spain.13 

Online publications excluded from legal deposit include mail and private correspondence, content 

hosted on a private network, and restricted-access files containing personal data.

14

The editor or producer of a website where an online publication is hosted is required to facilitate 

legal deposit.15

II. Management of Online Deposit

Conservation centers determine the websites and sources to be captured or deposited for 

preservation in order to facilitate their consultation, respecting the legal protection of personal data 

and intellectual property, and following the criteria of achieving better representation of the world 

of the internet and building a collection that is as complete as possible of publications such as 

electronic books and magazines.16 

7 Ley 23/2011, art. 6. 

8 Id. art. 6.2.

9 Id. arts. 18.a & 20.1. 

10 Id. art. 13.1.

11 Id. art. 13.2.

12 Id. art. 13.3.

13 Real Decreto 635/2015, art. 3.

14 Id. art. 4. 

15 Id. art. 5.

16 Id. art. 6(2). 
Digital Legal Deposit: Spain

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Conservation centers also inform the depository entity where the publisher or producer has its 

domicile, residence, or permanent establishment about any noncompliance with online deposit 

obligations. The depository entity is then responsible for enforcing the deposit obligations and, 

when appropriate, applying the pertinent sanctions in cases of violations of the law.17 

Online publications are not assigned legal deposit numbers.18

Conservations centers capture online publications in websites and publications contained therein 

that are freely accessible online through communication networks.19

In the case of online publications with restricted access, the publishers or producers of such 

websites and other online publications with restricted access are obliged to enable the collection

of their publications, providing conservation centers with passwords that allow access to all the 

contents or websites.20

The editor or producer of online publications deposited according to the preceding rules is required 

to allow such publications to be consulted and reproduced in the future without any password 

requirement. In addition, the publisher or producer of online publications, with limited time 

availability, is obliged to let conservation centers access these publications permanently.21

Compliance with these requirements may not affect the legitimate interests of rights holders or the 

commercial exploitation they make of such material.22 

Conservation centers are responsible for the preservation of those online publications with which

they are entrusted.23

Users’ access to repositories containing restricted access material may only be done through the 

terminals installed at the headquarters of the National Library of Spain and conservation centers 

of the autonomous communities, in compliance with laws concerning the protection of personal 

data and intellectual property.24

Conservation centers have the power to reproduce, reformat, regenerate, and transfer resources in 

order to ensure their preservation while complying with intellectual property laws.25 Holders of 

rights over works or services protected by technological measures are required to provide 

17 Id. art. 6(3). 

18 Id. art. 6(4). 

19 Id. art. 7(1)–(2). 

20 Id. art. 8(1). 

21 Id. art. 8(2). 

22 Id. art. 8(4). 

23 Id. art. 9(1). 

24 Id. art. 9(3).

25 Id. art. 9(4). 
Digital Legal Deposit: Spain

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conservation centers with the necessary information to allow for the reproduction of those 

resources.26 Those responsible for providing information are required to provide the means 

necessary to allow the transfer of data from its original media to the preservation platform.

27

The National Library of Spain and conservation centers designated by the autonomous 

communities may enter into cooperation agreements with public or private entities with 

distribution platforms for online publications and digital resources produced or edited by them, if 

considered safe repositories for preservation purposes.28 In this case, the safe repository becomes 

the guardian of the resources instead of transferring it to the conservation center.29

 26 Id.

27 Id.

28 Id. art. 10(1).

29 Id. art. 10(3).
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United Kingdom

Clare Feikert-Ahalt

Senior Foreign Law Specialist 

SUMMARY The United Kingdom has a robust system of copyright laws that was revised in 2003. The 

2003 Act provided the Secretary of State with the power to introduce regulations to require 

publishers to deposit non-print materials with the legal deposit libraries across the UK. Nonprint materials that meet certain criteria must be deposited with the legal deposit libraries if 

published in the UK. The regulations also enable the legal deposit libraries to perform web 

harvesting to obtain content, and provide restrictions as to the use of such content. 

I. Introduction

The deposit of books has been required by law in the United Kingdom since 1662.1 It is currently 

provided for by the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003.

2 This Act requires publishers and 

distributors to send one gratis copy of each publication to the Legal Deposit Office of the British 

Library within one month of publication.3

 

Five other libraries, which collectively with the British Library are known as legal deposit libraries, 

may within twelve months of publication obtain, upon request, a free copy of any recently 

published book for deposit.4 These libraries are the National Library of Scotland, National Library 

of Wales, Bodleian Library in Oxford, Cambridge University Library, and Trinity College Library

in Dublin.5 While the law states that the five other libraries must submit a request within a year 

of publication to receive materials, “in practice many publishers deposit their publications with all 

six libraries without waiting for a claim to be made.”6 The aim of this requirement is to preserve 

knowledge and information for future generations and “maintain the national published archive of 

the British Isles.”7

 1 Legal Deposit, BRITISH LIBRARY, http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/stratpolprog/legaldep/ (last visited May 29, 2018), 

archived at https://perma.cc/J6X8-QRT9. 

2 Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, c. 28, § 1, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/28, archived at

https://perma.cc/VYP3-V8DT. This obligation was previously contained in the Copyright Act, 1911, 1 & 2 Geo. 5, 

c. 46, § 15, which was repealed by the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003. 

3 BRITISH LIBRARY, supra note 1. 

4 About, AGENCY FOR THE LEGAL DEPOSIT LIBRARIES, https://www.legaldeposit.org.uk/about.html (last visited May 

22, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/AZJ9-Z6QC. 

5 Copyright Act, 1911, 1 and 2 Geo. 5, c. 46, § 15(2). See also Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003: Explanatory 

Notes, ¶ 4, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ ukpga/2003/28/notes/division/3, archived at https://perma.cc/PKJ4-

E6UZ. 

6 About, AGENCY FOR THE LEGAL DEPOSIT LIBRARIES, supra note 4. 

7 Id. See also Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003: Explanatory Notes, ¶ 6, 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/777/pdfs/uksiem_20130777_en.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/QE84-

PDYQ.
Digital Legal Deposit: United Kingdom

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Provided work is original and falls within one of the copyright categories, registration of copyright 

in the United Kingdom is automatic,

8 and as a result there is no official copyright register.9

 

Whether a work is original is ultimately a determination that can only be made by the courts.10

II. Mandatory Deposit of Non-Print Materials

The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 included a framework under which regulations could be 

introduced to extend the requirement to deposit print materials to non-print materials.

11 This 

power was used and, on April 6, 2013, ten years after the Legal Deposit Libraries Act was enacted, 

the Legal Deposit (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013 entered into force.

12 These Regulations 

extended the obligation to deposit materials to non-print materials to enable the legal deposit 

libraries to build and preserve a “national collection of e-journals, e-books, digitally published 

news, magazines and other types of content.”13 

A. Background to the Regulations

The 2013 Regulations were created amid a significant increase in online publications, leading the 

government to acknowledge that the internet has emerged as “an important record of national and 

world events.”14 The government has stated that these regulations are to achieve the policy 

objective of ensuring that the UK’s non-print publications are preserved for future generations: 

[t]he extension of legal deposit to non-print works is designed to ensure that the UK’s nonprint published output (and thereby its intellectual record and published heritage) is

preserved as an archive for research purposes, while also reducing the costs of legal deposit

to publishers overall.15

To help determine the best way to implement these new obligations, the government established 

an independent, nondepartmental public body in 2005, known as the Legal Deposit Advisory 

8 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, c. 48, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48, archived at

https://perma.cc/XF24-9ERA. 

9 How Copyright Protects Your Work, GOV.UK, https://www.gov.uk/copyright (last visited May 29, 2018), archived 

at https://perma.cc/PZ49-Z46V. 

10 Id. 

11 Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, c. 28, § 6.

12 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/777, ¶ 2, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ 

uksi/2013/777/made, archived at https://perma.cc/JEH8-DZP7. 

13 Depositing Electronic Publications, BRITISH LIBRARY, https://www.bl.uk/aboutus/legaldeposit/websites/elecpubs/

(last visited May 29, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/6ZGC-EKCB. 

14 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, Explanatory Memorandum, SI 2013/777, ¶ 7.1, 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/777/pdfs/uksiem_20130777_en.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/QE84-

PDYQ. 

15 Id. ¶ 2.3. 
Digital Legal Deposit: United Kingdom

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Panel, whose remit was to advise the government on how to implement the 2003 Act.16 The 

government undertook a consultation in 2010, soliciting input on recommendations from the Legal 

Deposit Advisory Panel on proposals for e-deposit and the response from the consultation 

prompted it to drop regulations that it had drafted.17 Issues that were highlighted during the 2010 

consultations included 

• a lack of clarification over the scope of the material covered by the regulations and whether or

not the requirement to deposit non-print materials applied to both offline and online materials,

• uncertainty over what non-print materials are considered to be published in the UK,

• restrictions on access to the content,

• costs of providing and maintaining this content, and

• the data security and integrity of deposited materials.18

The government determined from the responses provided to the consultation that the regulations 

as proposed would create a disproportionate burden, not overcome by the public benefit of deposit, 

to both libraries and publishers, and it worked to revise the draft regulations to take the feedback 

from the consultation into account.19 

Concerns were also raised over how restrictions on access to content after the expiration of 

copyright protections would be managed, but the government stated that this issue would be 

addressed at a later date, during a review of the regulations after their implementation.20

In 2012, the government revised and clarified the draft regulations and issued a second consultation 

that clarified the scope of the regulations as covering offline and online content, including online 

content that can be obtained through web harvesting.21 The Legal Deposit (Non-Print Works) 

Regulations 2013 were subsequently enacted. 

16 Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Consultation on the Legal Deposit of Non-Print 

Works, 2012, ¶ 1.4 (hereinafter DCMS Consultation), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ 

uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/73046/Consultation_on_the_Legal_Deposit_of_Non-Print_Works.pdf, 

archived at https://perma.cc/HWW5-82LQ. 

17 Id. ¶ 1.8. 

18 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/777, Explanatory Memorandum, supra

note 14, ¶ 8.2. 

19 DCMS Consultation, supra note 16, ¶ 7.

20 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/777, Explanatory Memorandum, supra

note 14, ¶ 8.3.

21 Id. 
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B. Material Covered by the Regulations

The material covered by the Regulations includes both offline publications, such as material 

contained on CD-ROM, DVD, or microform, and online publications, such as e-journals.22 The 

government has specifically stated as follows: 

Work published in a medium other than print means work published on line (such as 

content from the internet, an e-book or an electronic journal) or work published off line 

(that is, published in a physical form other than print such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM 

or microfilm).23

The regulations specifically exclude the following classes of material:

• Work that contains personal data and is available only to a restricted group, such as information

provided on a social media site with restricted access, such as closed groups on Facebook or

protected tweets. Materials on these sites that are available publicly fall within the remit of

the regulations.24

• Work that consists predominantly of film or recorded sound, or material that is incidental

to this.

• In cases of electronic materials that must be requested, rather than copied, work published prior

to the Regulations entering into force.25

In order for material to fall within the Regulations, it must be published in the UK, and this 

occurs when

(1) . . .

(a) it is made available to the public from a website with a domain name which relates

to the United Kingdom or to a place within the United Kingdom; or

(b) it is made available to the public by a person and any of that person’s activities

relating to the creation or the publication of the work take place within the

United Kingdom.

(2) A work published on line shall not be treated as published in the United Kingdom if

access to the work is only made available to persons outside the United Kingdom.26

22 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations, supra note 12, ¶ 13(1). 

23 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/777, Explanatory Memorandum, supra

note 14, ¶ 2.2. 

24 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, supra note 12, ¶ 13(2)(b). See also DCMS, 

Guidance on the Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, ¶¶ 4.5 & 6.3 (Apr. 2013) (hereinafter 

DCMS Guidance), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ 

file/182339/NPLD_Guidance_April_2013.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/MK7L-ETQX. 

25 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, supra note 12, ¶ 13. See also DCMS Guidance, 

supra note 24, ¶ 4.7.

26 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, supra note 12, ¶ 18(1)–(2). 
Digital Legal Deposit: United Kingdom

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C. Deposit of Non-Print Materials

The new regulations enable the legal deposit libraries to claim and receive non-print publications, 

notably those in an electronic format, from publishers. The British Library is entitled to one gratis 

copy of every offline work that is published in the UK. The other deposit libraries are able to 

request a copy.27 The format of the copy of offline material “must be of a quality most suitable 

for preservation as agreed by the publisher and the library or, in the absence of agreement, of the 

quality decided by the publisher.”28

1. Depositing Materials Under Agreement

In cases where publishers issue two versions of a single publication, an electronic version and a 

print version, the default form of deposit continues to be print, although the publisher and library 

may mutually agree that the work may be deposited in electronic format rather than print format.29

The regulations enable the publisher and deposit library to agree to another method of delivering 

online content, such as through a secure upload, and this agreement will satisfy the requirement 

contained in section 1 of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 to deliver content while continuing 

to be subject to the restrictions and exemptions that the regulations apply to non-print materials.30

The material must be provided in the form that is “most suitable for preservation purposes,”31 as 

determined by agreement between the deposit library and the publisher or, in the absence of such 

an agreement, as determined by the publisher.32 If such an agreement is made, the materials must 

be delivered within one month after a request is made in writing by the deposit library.33 

For cases of offline materials and online materials obtained under agreement, the publisher must 

include a copy of any computer program and/or information necessary to access the work provided 

and a copy of a manual or other material that accompanies the work and is available to the public.34

2. Obtaining Content through Web Harvesting

In cases where there is no agreement for the deposit of online material, the Regulations permit 

deposit libraries to obtain a copy of online materials that fall within the criteria of the regulations 

through an automated process, known as “web harvesting.” This process, which is coordinated 

between the deposit libraries to ensure sufficient coverage and prevent overburdening publishers’ 

27 Id. ¶ 15.

28 DCMS Guidance, supra note 24, ¶ 4.10.

29 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, supra note 12, ¶ 16(1). See also DCMS Guidance, 

supra note 24, ¶ 4.9.

30 Id. ¶ 16(2). See also DCMS Guidance, supra note 22, ¶¶ 3.5 & 5.2.

31 DCMS Guidance, supra note 24, ¶ 5.2.

32 Id. 

33 Id. ¶ 3.6. 

34 Id. ¶ 7.1. 
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Digital Legal Deposit: United Kingdom

websites,35 occurs where a computer fitted with software requests content from a website, and the 

website the content is requested from responds automatically with a copy of the content and its 

associated metadata.

36

 

The regulations provide that the material must be provided automatically once the content has been 

requested by the software.37 This applies to content freely available as well as content subject to 

public-access restrictions, such as behind a login page.38 In cases of material behind a login page,

the deposit library must provide notice to the publisher at least one month before web harvesting 

commences to enable the publisher to provide login details to the deposit library.

39

 

This login information must be used for subsequent requests to the same site for content contained 

behind a password-protected wall. In cases of material behind a login page, the visit by the web 

harvesting software to the login page is “deemed to be a request for the on line works behind 

that page.”40 

D. Use of Materials, Restrictions, and Exemptions

To ensure that the copyright holder’s work is not violated, the deposit libraries are subject to some 

restrictions over how the materials obtained may be handled. 

1. Transferring and Viewing Materials

Deposited non-print materials may be transferred or lent to other deposit libraries, and the deposit 

libraries may use the materials for their own research.41 The deposit libraries must wait seven days 

after receiving the materials before they make it available to the public. At that point, the Legal 

Deposit (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013 provide that non-print material may only be viewed 

at a work station on “library premises controlled by the deposit library,”42 and the deposit library 

may only display the same item of non-print material at one computer terminal to a person located 

on the premises at any given time.43 

35 Id. ¶ 5.4.

36 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/777, ¶ 13. See also Legal Deposit 

Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/777, Explanatory Memorandum, supra note 14, ¶¶ 7.2 

& 8.1.

37 DCMS Guidance, supra note 24, ¶ 3.3. 

38 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, supra note 12, ¶ 16(3).

39 DCMS Guidance, supra note 24, ¶ 3.4. 

40 Id. ¶ 3.4. 

41 Id. ¶ 4.17. 

42 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, supra note 12, ¶ 2. 

43 Id. ¶ 24.
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2. Copying Materials 

The Regulations provide that deposit libraries may make copies of non-print materials in three

scenarios without infringing copyright: (1) for the purposes of preservation, (2) for researchers and 

to enable access to visually impaired individuals, and (3) if another copy is not otherwise

commercially available.44

Deposit libraries are authorized to make copies of or adapt non-print material for the purposes of 

preservation, and these copies may be in a different form or medium than the original deposit.45 

Deposit libraries may also dispose of deposited materials by destroying them, but must keep one 

copy of all relevant material in the most suitable version for the purposes of preservation.46

Librarians may make copies of non-print materials for researchers if certain conditions are met 

and the material copied forms a reasonable proportion of the non-print material that it is copied 

from. Deposit libraries may also provide copies of non-print materials where a database right does 

not exist if the library is satisfied the copy is required by a “person for the purposes of noncommercial research or private study, criticism or review or reporting current events, 

parliamentary or judicial proceedings or a Royal Commission or statutory inquiry and will not be 

used for any other purpose.”47

In cases of non-print materials where a database right exists under the Copyright and Rights in 

Databases Regulations 1997,

48 a deposit library may provide copies to a person if it is satisfied “that 

the copy is required by that person for the purposes of parliamentary or judicial proceedings or a 

Royal Commission or statutory inquiry and will not be used for any other purpose.”49

The Regulations also contain a declaration that may be submitted to the deposit library, enabling 

a user to declare that her or she will only use the materials for the purposes above, and that if the 

materials are used for any other purposes that user will be liable for infringing copyright.50

3. Copyright Holder Restricting Access to Materials

The Regulations permit rights holders to stop deposit libraries from providing access to

their material

 44 Id. ¶ 26. See also DCMS Guidance, supra note 24, ¶ 4.20.

45 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, supra note 12, ¶ 29. See also DCMS Guidance, 

supra note 24, ¶ 4.22. 

46 DCMS Guidance, supra note 24, ¶ 4.24. 

47 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, supra note 12, ¶ 27(2)(a).

48 Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997, SI 1997/3032, ¶ 20A, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ 

uksi/1997/3032/made, archived at https://perma.cc/Q9RD-TA9Y. 

49 Id. ¶ 27(2)(b).

50 Id. ¶ 27(2)(c).
Digital Legal Deposit: United Kingdom

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if they can demonstrate that allowing access to the non-print work would, or would be 

likely to, unreasonably prejudice their legitimate interests. A rights holder may request an 

initial embargo of up to three years and may make subsequent requests of up to three years, 

each time meeting the requirement to demonstrate prejudice to their legitimate interests.51

The aim of the government is to “extend the system of legal deposit progressively and selectively 

to cover various non-print media as they develop, including off-line publications (e.g. CD ROMS 

and microforms), on-line publications (e.g. e-journals) and other non-print materials.”52

E. Costs

The Legal Deposit Act 2003 included a requirement that regulations requiring the deposit of other 

materials should not result in costs to publishers that are disproportionate to the public benefit 

achieved by the process of deposit. Specifically, regulations could not be introduced “unless the 

Secretary of State considers that the costs likely to be incurred as a result of the regulations by 

persons who publish works to which the regulations relate are not disproportionate to the benefit 

to the public arising from the delivery of copies of such works.”53

After a consultation, the Secretary of State determined that the costs that would be introduced as a 

result of the 2013 regulations were not disproportionate to the public benefit.54 The government 

noted that the regulations would provide an overall savings to publishers, but impose additional 

costs on legal deposit libraries, who would have to establish and maintain a web harvesting system, 

but that this cost was outweighed by the public benefit “in being able to collect on line works

systematically to produce a shared archive of non-print works, and the potential savings that can 

be made from no longer needing to archive a proportion of printed works.”55

F. Development of Collections Policy

Deposit libraries are required to maintain and publish collections policies for non-print materials 

that detail the collection strategy and high-level priorities, and identify which publishers are within 

the scope of the Regulations.56

 51 DCMS Guidance, supra note 24, ¶ 4.19.

52 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/777, Explanatory Memorandum, supra

note 14, ¶ 6.

53 Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, c. 28, § 11(4). 

54 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, supra note 12, Introductory Text.

55 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/777, Explanatory Memorandum, supra

note 14, ¶ 10.2.

56 DCMS Guidance, supra note 24, ¶ 5.1.
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III. Alternatives to the Regulatory Approach

A voluntary arrangement had been in place for a number of years, and the Agency for the Legal 

Deposit Libraries considered that,

[i]n practice, most publishers of such works have already been depositing them under a 

long-established voluntary code of practice, the provisions of which are similar to those in 

the Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013. Therefore no significant 

practical change or impact is anticipated, except changing from a voluntary to a statutory 

basis for depositing.57

The government’s view contrasted with this statement, and it noted that it had

considered non-statutory alternatives to this instrument, such as voluntary deposit schemes 

for non-print works. These have not been taken forward, however, as they would not 

adequately resolve the issue of a growing gap in the comprehensiveness of the archives 

and records of the UK’s digitally published output.58

 57 Electronic Legal Deposit: Legal Deposit Libraries’ Collecting Plans For 2013–2014, AGENCY FOR THE LEGAL 

DEPOSIT LIBRARIES, https://www.legaldeposit.org.uk/electronic/2013-2014-collecting-plans.html (last visited May 

23, 2018), archived at https://perma.cc/7ZFJ-85Z4. 

58 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/777, Explanatory Memorandum, supra

note 14, ¶ 7.4.