ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 42. (ZAGREB, 1999.)

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C. Gränström, Access to current records and archives, as a tool of democracy, transparency and openness of the government administration, Arh. vjesn., god. 42 (1999), str. 79-92 chival institutions to accept transfers of documents still considered to be classified. This task to keep and decide about access is becoming more difficult and is very sensitive. It also demands legal skill at the archival institution to manage classified material, which is necessary if the confidence of the public shall be kept. 2.3 Privacy In addition to secrecy law rules, data protection rules will also restrict access. Such rules are to a greater extent unconditional and not subject to appeal procedures. The applicant is, however, entitled to get access to information about himself, unless exceptions are given in law, for example for the sake of preventing and detecting crime. The fact is that the private individual is given some rights concerning the use and access and also given a right to know what kind of information a controller has got, that is the keeper of personal data. The most recent and most important legislation is the Directive issued 1995 by the European Union on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. The Council of Europe has before issued conventions and recommendations in the same area. That this Directive will come in conflict with the freedom of information legislation is evident. Just now, it is too early to say something specific about how the Directive will be implemented in the EU member states, which should have taken place at the latest in October 1998, and how the Court of Justice of the Union will give its verdicts on the implementation. I can mention that just now only six of the fifteen member states have implemented the Directive into national legislation. 2.4 Copyright The copyright issue has so far not been of acute interest for archival institutions. In many cases, the access to documents has been in many ways exempted from copyright obligations according to national legislation. Copyright is aimed to protect the results of an author, artist or other creator's intellectual labour and skill. This work can be a book, a picture, a photograph, a picture on a video tape, or even a letter. It is important to distinguish between the physical ownership and the intellectual copyright, that is a letter can be given to and owned by an archival institution but the rights of making it available can belong to the originator. But the digital world and the internationalisation with binding supranational conventions have changed this state of things. New technology, which is not limited by national boundaries, challenges traditional applications in three ways, the ease of transmitting, ability to modify and the necessity and easiness to copy and migrate. Copyright owners has reacted very promptly to this new technology and it is a fact that this is becoming a very important issue, where a lot of money is at stake. That is why the Berne Convention from 1886 is not sufficient any longer and new legislati85