Dear lis-linkers
Re the recent conversations last week about e-signatures. Sandy Norman, the
LA's Copyright Adviser, asks me to forward you the following update.
The LA is still pursuing the acceptance of electronic signatures on library
copyright declaration forms. Three members of the LA Copyright Alliance had
a meeting with Judith Sullivan at Patent Office on 24th May to discuss the
implications of a DTI consultation paper on the implementation of the
Electronic Signatures Directive in the UK which LACA (and the Patent Office)
had only just found out about. The bit we think is relevant to the
declaration form signature is contained in Article 5.1 of the E-sigs
Directive which states that "Member States shall ensure that advanced
electronic signatures which are based on a qualified certificate and which
are qualified by a secure signature creation device a)satisfy the legal
requirements of a signature in relation to data in electronic form in the
same manner as a handwritten signature satisfy those requirements in
relation to paper-based data."
The consultation paper states the Government is likely to make this a
requirement but they say that this would not work when writing is required
for a transaction. The Government is seeking legal advice whether the
writing requirement of our declaration forms could include electronic. If it
does then provided that it is received in the way described above using some
secure signature creation device then we will be able to accept them. When
the LA receives some definite information on this, an item will be placed in
the LA Record and on the LACA web pages at
http://www.la-hq.org.uk/groups/laca/laca.html
<http://www.la-hq.org.uk/groups/laca/laca.html> The consultation document
may be found at
http://www.dti.gov.uk/cii/ecommerce/europeanpolicy/index.shtml
<http://www.dti.gov.uk/cii/ecommerce/europeanpolicy/index.shtml> .
Barbara Stratton
Information Manager, Members' Information Centre
E-mail: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
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The Library Association, 7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0500 Fax: +44 (0)20 7255 0501 Textphone: +44 (0)20 7255
0505
General email: <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] Web:
<http://www.la-hq.org.uk/> www.la-hq.org.uk/
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