Not just sound archives, but film as well. Almost all of the silent films shot in Ithaca have been lost because they were left to rot in their containers due to copyright laws.

Something I don't understand is that the Library of Congress is in charge of writing the guidelines on copyright, do they not have any leeway to be able to stop or reduce enforcement of the law in this case?

Well, they can't change the law, for sure. And they're not the ones that control enforcement. They have some leeway to interpret open-ended parts of the law, but there aren't many of those left.

In the UK there are copyright libraries - you must give a copy of your work to these libraries if you want the government to prosecute copyright for you. The British library (equivalent of LoC) is one.

It may have changed, but to register your copyright, you send (I think two) copies to the LoC with the registration. The issue isn't whether LoC gets a copy, the issue is their ability to backup or transfer the information in the event the media deteriorates or for other risks.

Sadly, even if they get this ironed out for their purposes, I doubt it'll translate to increased freedom for consumers. The LoC isn't a person, so any legislation will probably be special-cased for them.

Nice to see them recognizing and admitting some problems around the super-locked-down world of audio / media, however.

It's something to wave in the face of the pro-Copyrighters that ride a campaign of "more restrictive copyright for a brighter future."

It surprises me there isn't a gentleman's agreement that the Library of Congress can make and store as many copies as they want for the sole purpose of archiving, and that the copyright holders don't press charges since it's not as if they'd loose anything by it.

Seriously, the LOC should just go ahead and do it. Aren't copyright rulings supposed to include damages? Any competent judge would rule zero damages on the off chance that someone did bring suit.

It's been a while since copyright lawsuits had anything to do with proving actual damages.

It's not so much that the LOC can't do it, but that other libraries cant't do it.

I never did understand why media companies weren't lining up to get their works into the LOC. Hey, free archiving by what are ostensibly experts in the field.

Lets face it, the "Disney Vault" is more moldy cardboard box and less giant bank safe with mouse ears.

I'm fairly certain that the "Disney Vault" is well preserved, guarded, insulated and insured. Unfortunately our children and our children's children will be paying for Cinderella's dry cleaning for a long time to come.

I understand this could be an issue for older films/audio but in the modern era i think the internet is doing a fine job archiving everything that ever existed.