Abstract

Copyright is a legal criterion for determining the scope and method of digital library service. Works with expired protection periods correspond to the public domain and can be freely used by anyone. For this reason, it is a priority consideration in digital library construction and services. The purpose of this study is to examine how actively libraries are using expired protected works for digital library services. To this end, the relevant provisions of the Copyright Act applied to the construction and service of digital libraries were first summarized, and the meaning of the copyright protection period was theoretically examined. The current status of online services for expired works by the National Library of Korea was examined, focusing on the works of three Japanese colonial era writers, Kim Yoo-jung, Lee Hyo-seok, and Chae Man-sik, to check the specific service status of expired works. It reveals that the National Library of Korea is not fully utilizing the scope of the law, and that this situation is linked to the rights of other authors included in the book. Based on these results, it suggests that there is a need to change the service unit to focus on copyrighted works and to use authority records to systematize the management of authors’ death years.