電子図書館時代の著作権

抄録

In an age of computers and networks, the information services, even the traditional libraries, extend their territories towards the digital information media. In this article, we discuss the copyright issues of these media in terms of the information services. The mechanisms of copyright protection are based on the cost-benefit balances of reproduction. Compared with the reproduction cost of the conventional paper medium, that of the digital information media is so cheap that it is now difficult to protect the copyright of digital information. On the Internet, the anonymity of the authors makes it easy for the readers to violate the copyright without a sense of guilt. Though the information centers and the publishers need to address these problems immediately, the prospects are unclear for the time being.