ASSOCIATION OF ELECTRONIC LIBRARIES TO APPEAR IN RUSSIA

MOSCOW, December 14 (RIA Novosti) - There are plans to set up an association of electronic libraries in Russia with a view to protecting copyright in the Internet. A working group on establishing this association was formed this Tuesday at an on-line copyright protection round-table, held at the federal agency on press and mass communications. The latter is to take part in the establishment of this association, reports Yury Akinshin, deputy chief of the agency's department on television and radio broadcasting and mass media.

In the opinion of the group's coordinator Akinshin, there are some legal loopholes in the matter of copyright insurance in the Internet. "One should take an intent look at the current legislation on intellectual property and sound out the role of electronic libraries in it," he told RIA Novosti.

Intellectual property should be protected both in the Internet and beyond it, claims Akinshin. He believes that the electronic community should form a common position in relation to copyright in the electronic environment.

Spokesmen for the Internet community at the round-table discussion noted the impossibility of exercising copyright in electronic libraries. In their opinion, the electronic network does not offer a proper system for this.

As to spokesmen for copyright societies, they claim that reprinting author's text in electronic libraries infringes on the authors' rights and financial interests. The contemporary system of copyright protection does not enable the authors to live on the publication of their works, conclude the participants in the round-table discussion.