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Category: Communication

Description: ​This panel will introduce attendees to the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation, including the problems it was designed to help solve and the ways that librarians, curators, archivists, and others can use the Code to break through legal barriers that are impeding their work. In the research that led to development of the Code, legal uncertainty was identified over and over as the number one impediment to collaboration and effective resource-sharing in the software preservation community. The best practices seek to address that uncertainty by offering concrete strategies to deploy fair use in software preservation. In doing so, it will also facilitate collaboration and capacity-building, and legitimize the building of certain kinds of technological infrastructure—in particular, the widespread use of emulation. ​This panel will introduce attendees to the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation, including the problems it was designed to help solve and the ways that librarians, curators, archivists, and others can use the Code to break through legal barriers that are impeding their work. In the research that led to development of the Code, legal uncertainty was identified over and over as the number one impediment to collaboration and effective resource-sharing in the software preservation community. The best practices seek to address that uncertainty by offering concrete strategies to deploy fair use in software preservation. In doing so, it will also facilitate collaboration and capacity-building, and legitimize the building of certain kinds of technological infrastructure—in particular, the widespread use of emulation.