Right to digitalize Armenian literature?

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.