RIGHT TO DIGITALIZE ARMENIAN LITERATURE?
Panorama.am
20:24 04/09/2007
Yesterday at a press conference American-Armenian University rector
Harutyun Armenian informed journalists that the university had
digitalized all Armenian literature from up to the 18th century,
and is also ready to digitalize Western Armenian literature from the
18th to 20th century.
While respecting this titanic work, a few questions arise. For
instance, who will use this information, to whom will it belong,
who gave the right to do this work, and isn’t it a violation of the
law to assume this right of copyright of this literature?
In a conversation with a panorama.am journalist, Susanna Nersisyan,
director of the organization involved in the protection of copyrights
in Armenia, says that in this case no law has been broken. "In this
case, involving Armenian literature from up to the 18th century,
no law is broken if the organization or person makes no name or
content changes. But the spreading of this information, such as on
the Internet, breaks the law."
In Nersisyan’s words, modern literature is protected for 70 years,
with any usage needing permission from heirs of the author.
About the digitalization of huge amounts of work and its usage
we attempted to meet with the director of the Matenadaran, Hrachya
Tamrazyan. We were informed that he would not give an interview until
the first 100 days of his new position had been completed. We note
that the director was appointed on July 17, and that only 49 days
have passed since his appointment.
Asking the press department of the Culture Ministry whether the
American university had any agreements with the government concerning
activities of Armenian-dedicated subjects, Gayane Durgaryan said she
would look into this and answer us tomorrow.