Legal Deposit Laws

France is the first country in the world to have established a legal deposit for printed books, (Montpellier Ordinance, taken by King François I, December 28, 1537), with two objectives, at the time: the constitution of the national heritage and supervision of publishing. Reformed and extended several times, the legal deposit is now governed by articles L131-1 to L133-1 of the Heritage Code / Code du patrimoine (https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/section_lc/LEGITEXT000006074236/LEGISCTA000006144103/#LEGISCTA000006144103) for legislative provisions and articles R131-1 to R133-1-1 of the same code (https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/section_lc/LEGITEXT000006074236/LEGISCTA000024240034/#LEGISCTA000024240034) for regulatory aspects. Regulatory Part, Book III, Chapter III, Libraries (https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/section_lc/LEGITEXT000006074236/LEGISCTA000024240657/) Defines, in particular, "heritage documents", the procedures for transferring documents belonging to the State, the scope and procedures for the State's technical and scientific control of local authority libraries, and the annual report on their respective libraries that local authorities must submit to the State.   The collection, conservation and making available of all publishers' and producers’ productions as well as all documents distributed or imported in France are entrusted to three national institutions: - The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) (https://www.bnf.fr/fr/les-missions-de-la-bnf), for books, periodicals, maps and plans, scores, prints, photographs, audio, audiovisual and multimedia documents, software, databases, electronic games and most of the websites. From the legal deposit of these documents (except websites), the BnF prepares the French National Bibliography (https://bibliographienationale.bnf.fr/). - The Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA) (https://www.ina.fr/), for radio and television programs and websites relating to these media, - The Centre national de la cinématographie et de l'image animée (CNC)(https://www.cnc.fr/), for films on photochemical media. In addition, printers must also deposit their productions in 30 libraries in the regions, including overseas territories.   Some figures from the legal deposit, 2024: Books, brochures and other printed publications: 93440 (+ 44 eBooks) Periodicals (issues): 182634 Phonograms, videograms and multimedia: 29202 Scores (titles): 1290 Maps and plans: 2309 Internet (number of URL): 4,3 billion

This law defines state policy in the field of legal deposit and creates the legal grounds for establishing a national bibliographic data bank with other laws of Georgia; and ensures the production and development of Georgian national bibliography and the protection, preservation and availability of tangible documentary heritage; and determines the types of legal deposit documents, and categories of producers and recipients, and their rights and duties, and procedures for the establishment of a Georgian national bibliographic data bank, and liabilities for not complying with obligations. The law applies to the producers of legal deposit, and national and local recipients of legal deposit and all natural and legal persons, who are engaged in receiving, distributing, producing, transferring and preserving legal deposit.

The law requires that two copies of media works (defined as all writing, images or sound, distributed or made available to the public, but not films which do not mainly focus on music, or radio works) on physical media are sent to the dnb [German National Library] free of charge and without being requested to do so. In case of online publications, only single copy needs to be deposited. This should happen within one week – after which the library can send a reminder. If nothing happens after a further three weeks, the library can procure a copy at the cost of the producer. This applies to those who have created or distribute or make available works and who have their place of establishment or residence in Germany. Various import interfaces are provided for deposits of digital documents. If a publication appears both online and in a physical format, copies must be deposited in both formats. They should come in a format that allows the library to make use of it, including for preservation purposes. Additionally, each federal state of Germany requires that one or two copies of works published in that state be deposited in the respective state library repository. The library may make copies of works and give access as long as the original work itself is also freely available to the public (i.e. unpaywalled websites).

Seven copies of each publication (book, newspaper etc.) must be deposited at the Register General's office including six libraries, which provide access to deposited materials to users.

The Law concerns the National Library of Greece (NLG) and the public libraries. It is complementary to the previous law (2003), regarding new services provided by NLG as well as its strategic and operational plan. The law provides for an obligation on publishers to deposit four copies of all types of all published material, including printed, audio, video, digital, and restricted access web material. It mandates that publishers (or authors, when there is no publisher) are required, in addition to the deposit of hardcopies, to provide a readable electronic version of publications free from any Technical Protection Means, and to facilitate access to content protected by Technical Protection Means or otherwise protected content. It also describes the obligation of publishers or authors, when there is no publisher, to deposit two copies of all types of all published material to the library of the Hellenic Parliament. According the law, the National Library of Greece is appointed as the organization to undertake, allocate and coordinate the action of archiving the Hellenic Web, i.e. in fact said provision names the National Library of Greece as the organization responsible for text and data analysis at national level in Greece.

The depository centre is in the National Library. Materials to be deposited include books; pamphlets; brochures; reports and statistics that are printed and published by the government for the purpose of selling and distributing; university theses; magazines; official newspapers; Iraqi events; musical publications and other materials that the Ministry of Culture considers to be works. The owner of the press must deposit five copies of his works in the national library. The works should be deposited before they are made available to the public.

The Books Law obligates anyone who publishes more than 50 copies of a book, newspaper, journal, map, brochure, flyer, or poster (and not to a closed group) to provide the National Library with two copies within a month of publication. As of June 2001, the law also includes publications which are not printed on paper, such as audio visual materials and digital publications of books, journals, newspapers, databases and internet sites. The law does not state the preservation responsibilities of the library as regards deposited material, but it prohibits it from selling the materials, but allows the transfer to other entities if there is no payment. The law states that the library must preserve and make its collections publicly-available, including those received via legal deposit. On-site use of library materials is free, but deposited materials may not be borrowed. Digital access is available for a small amount of deposited items and is subject to authorization from the copyright holder.

The legal deposit system in Japan was established in 1948, that the publishers shall furnish the domestic publications to the National Diet Library (NDL). Up to this time, the main objects of the legal deposit system have been non-electronic publications (i.e., books, serials, maps, and so on). Now, by the amendment of the NDL Law, off-line electronic publications will be the objects of the legal deposit system. And the number of copies of government publications shall furnish to the NDL will be also revised. The stated goal of legal deposit is to ‘contribute to the accumulation and utility of cultural goods’. The legal deposit system mandates that copies of all new publications published in Japan must be sent to the National Diet Library (NDL) in accordance with the National Diet Library Law, within 30 days of publication. The applicable "publications" include books, pamphlets, serial publications, musical scores, maps, and phonographic records and so on. There is also eLegal deposit in place, with an indication that the NDL needs to pay for ePublications. A prescribed number of copies of the publications of any government agency must be sent immediately to the NDL for its official use and for its use in international exchange. The same applies to the publications of local governments. As set out in the copyright law, the NDL can give access to such materials to registered members, as well as others on demand.

Adopted in 2006, the Law prescribes the procedures by which the legal deposit copies intended for public use shall be supplied to the National Library of Latvia, the procedure by which the legal deposit copies shall be distributed among other libraries as referred by Law, as well as the procedures by which the National Library of Latvia shall harvest and archive online publications and perform the control of the delivery of the legal deposit copies. The purpose of the Law is to ensure the permanent preservation, processing and public use of the national cultural heritage – all the printed publications, unconventional or "grey” literature, electronic publications and online publications in Latvia. Deposited material, including online publications and harvested websites, can be accessed on-site. Deposited material serves as a foundation for the national bibliography and national publishing statistics. Legal deposit libraries:

• National Library of Latvia;
• Academic Library of the University of Latvia;
• 4 university libraries;
• 2 regional libraries;
• Latvian Library for the Blind.

In 2017, a proposal for the new Legal Deposit Act by the National Library of Latvia was submitted to the Ministry of Culture.

All published materials published, put on sale, distributed, rented out, or otherwise made available for reproduction, in any form (analogue/virtual, including databases, software, and the products of artificial intelligence), are concerned by legal deposit, with up to five copies being deposited with the National Library. In the case of audio-visual works, these are deposited, following specific rules on technical format, at the National Centre for Audiovisual Media.  In the case of publications in the Luxembourgish language, or dealing with Luxembourgish culture, at least one copy should be deposited with the National Centre for Literature. The Library also has a responsibility to collect as wide a selection as possible of materials published elsewhere. The National Library is charged with providing the widest possible access to its collections, including through loan and remote access, and can play the role of a university library. More specific details (including on the precise number of copies) are listed in a separate decree, which can change regularly. The National Library also has a role in coordinating the network of libraries in Luxembourg, and hosts the national ISBN and ISSN centres.

According to this law, issued in 1986, the published (libraries, organisations, individual, agencies) of every printed and non-printed materials published in Malaysia must submit 5 printed copies and 2 copies of non-printed materials to the National Library as a national heritage. The deposted materials are preserved  and documented in the online  Malaysian National Bibliography. Researchers can have access to the deposited materials on site through a formal request to the National Library.

National Library is designated by law to collect materials from Namibia or relating to Namibia. It should receive five copies of all materials that are published and intended to be generally available to the public, within two weeks of publication. The Act defines documents subject to legal deposit as being ‘any information in textual, graphic, visual, auditory or other intelligible format stored through any medium, and any version or edition of a document which is significantly different from that document in respect of its information content or physical presentation and is considered to be a separate document’. What is mainly deposited are books, journals, annual reports and newspapers. The National library gives access to deposited materials on-site and to researchers, but there is also a provision of scanning the documents and send them to users via emails (depends on the size of the document needed). It is also responsible for, on the basis of collected materials, creating a national bibliography. Other institutions can be designated as ‘places of deposit’ and can receive copies of documents from the National Library. The National Library is also responsible for co-ordinating and supplementing the acquisition, exchange, disposal or retention of any library material to ensure an adequate national library resources; provide access to its materials and to other information resources which are inside or outside Namibia through inter-lending, catalogues, databases, networking and user services.