In the age of digitalization today, disputes frequently occur in respect of whether a cultural and educational institute can digitalize its archives. Recently, the Intellectual Property Office pointed out that according to the Copyright Act, the economic rights in a work that was archived in a cultural and educational institute was subject to protection during the life of the author and fifty years after the author's death or for a term of fifty years after the first publication of the work. If the term of economic rights in a work archived in a cultural and educational institute expires, digital reproduction of such work by the institute for public review on-line does not constitute copyright infringement, provided that such digital reproduction does not affect the moral rights of the author of the work.

If a cultural and educational institute desires to digitalize a work it archives, in which the economic rights are still valid, this will involve reproduction of another's work. Unless the institute claims the fair use necessary for preservation of information under the Copyright Act, a license from or the consent of the owner of the economic rights in the work is required. The so-called "necessary for preservation of information" means that the work in the archive has been destroyed or lost or is likely to be destroyed or lost from an objective point of view and the reproduction of the same version or a proper version thereof is not available through reasonable channels on the market.

When a cultural and educational institute posts the content of a digitalized work on the Internet for public review, public transmission is also involved. When a cultural and educational institute digitally reproduces the content of a work for preservation purposes pursuant to the Copyright Act and publicly transmits such digitalized content to readers inside the institute via computer terminals or other reading machines having no reproduction function, such public transmission may be deemed fair use under the Copyright Act. If the digitalized reproduction of a work is made for purposes other than preservation, the consent of or a license from the owner of the economic rights in the work should be first obtained regardless of whether review of the digitalized content is only allowed on the premises or access is controlled through user accounts. Otherwise, there exists a likelihood of infringement.