Summary

Legal deposit copies represent important assets from the perspective of Estonian science, culture, and education. The legal deposit system is understood in literature as an administrative process in which publishers or authors deposit their publications for the preservation of cultural heritage. The system can be mandatory or voluntary. A mandatory legal deposit system is provided for by law, a voluntary one is based on contracts. The custodians of such copies are usually national libraries.

The central characteristic of a legal deposit copy is its connection with Estonian culture. This makes it essential to use it as an object of analysis (including for text and data mining), in which case copyright exceptions such as the on-site consultation exception and the data mining exception can be invoked. The application of these exceptions to legal deposit copies will be analysed in the article. This is based primarily on the example of the National Library of Estonia.

In addition to the Copyright Act and the Legal Deposit Copy Act, the analysis of copyright law below draws on the DSM Directive and its preparatory materials, the Information Society Directive, the Act amending the Copyright Act transposing the DSM Directive into national law and the explanatory memorandum to that Act, the Database Directive, and other legislation and case law.