Arriving at solutions that are satisfactory to both the creators and the users of materials will prove difficult. Furthermore the speed of technical change means that legislators are having to aim at a moving target. Therefore the whole area of the legitimate use of digital materials is surrounded by considerable uncertainty. However the European Union's Directive on Copyright in the Information Society should help to clarify these issues. A summary of the main points of the EU Directive is available.
More detailed information is available in the full version of the working party's report .
In the case of most databases used in Exeter, whether online or on CD-ROM, for which the university pays for access, copying of data is normally covered by the conditions in licence for the product concerned. Not all licences are the result of national negotiations. Some are simply drawn up by the publishers responsible for the product concerned. These agreements cover types of user access , conditions for the use of datasets , and conditions for the use of software . Although a great deal of the material available on the Internet is free it should be assumed that it is copyrighted unless otherwise stated or there are good grounds for supposing that it is not, e.g. the age of the material.