Legal Deposit Act 2012 - Enacted from 1st Jan 2014
Mar 20, 2014 at 12:13PM If you are a Western Australian Publisher then you can help the State Library of Western Australia preserve our State's heritage by depositing copies of your published material.
*UPDATES*
We sort to clarify what was meant by:
"obliges publishers to provide copies" and whether this was a voluntary procedure. We have now been told that publishers are "compelled to provide copies". So essentially this will be a mandatory Act.
Q. How secure is a publishers content, particularly in regards to unauthroised copying? A. We sort to clarify, whether or not the articles would be secure and how unauthorised copying of someone's new material could be prevented and whether security would be guaranteed. We were referred to the FAQs on the website. Clearly if an artist has to provide copies of content within a month of publication then there may be some issues as to return on investment before the potential for piracy. It would be naive to assume that there wouldnt be people willing to source new content at minimal cost.
Q. Who pays for the provision of extra copies? A. The cost of compliance is also worn by the publisher. This not only includes additional copies to be deposited at the SLWA, but also the time taken to complete the application and delivery of the content to the library by hand, courier of other means. Proportionally the cost will be higher with smaller runs of product.
Q. What happens if softare or programme content is copy protected? A.Where articles such as DVDs or software carry copy protection it may be required to provide copies without copy protection as well as the "Preservation Copy." Again this raises issues of security of the product aswell as additional cost.
Q. Will there be consequences for non-compliance? A. Possibly, there are provisions for penalties built in to the Act. How this will be adminstered is yet to be shown,
Q. How fast will the Legal Deposit Act be implemented. A. It was enabled 1st January 2014. A public awareness campaign has begun and it likely to be expanded targetting areas such a Music more closely.
We will continue to seek clarification on some of the aspects of the Act.
What is Legal Deposit Act 2012?
Legal Deposit is a statutory provision that obliges publishers to provide copies of their own publications to libraries in the state in which they are published. This came in to fruition on the 1st of January 2014 in WA and brings Western Australia in to line with other States in Australia.
The State Library of Western Australia is the Legal Deposit library for Western Australia. The Legal Deposit Act 2012 was passed in May 2012. This Act covers print, audio-visual and digital material, including works published on the internet.
The Regulations apply to publications published in Western Australia, by a person who is resident i n WA, or whose principle place of business is in WA.
What is a publication?
A publication is any work that has been made available to the public. A publication can be in any format: a book, newspaper, journal, pamphlet, map, printed music, film, CD, DVD, computer disc, internet article or other device.
Publications need to be deposited with the State Library within 30 days of publication.
Who is a publisher?
Any person, group or organisation that resides in Western Australia and produces content that is made available to the public is considered a publisher.
Where do you deposit material?
Legal Deposit material should be sent to:
Legal Deposit
State Library of Western Australia
25 Francis St
Perth WA 6000
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: (08) 9427 3348
Hand delivered Legal Deposit material should be taken to our ground floor Welcome Desk with a completed Legal Deposit / Donation Receipt form.
Important Note
You cannont deliver material to local libraries, Only the State Library of Western Australia collects material under the Legal Deposit Act 2013
More information can be found at the State Library website www.slwa.wa.gov.au