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arl-ereserve: Re: copyright permissions for electronic reserves

arl-ereserve: Re: copyright permissions for electronic reserves

Re: copyright permissions for electronic reserves

Steve Melamut (melas@ils.unc.edu)
Thu, 30 Oct 1997 13:40:20 -0400 (EDT) 

Message-Id: <199710301839.NAA08190@ruby.ils.unc.edu>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 13:40:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: melas@ils.unc.edu (Steve Melamut)
To: arl-ereserve@arl.org
Subject: Re: copyright permissions for electronic reserves
In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19971030093153.008bd9c0@merle.acns.nwu.edu>; from "melas" at Thu Oct 30 13:40:20 1997


On Thu, 30 Oct 1997, Brian Nielsen <b-nielsen@nwu.edu> wrote:
> 
> On 10/29/97, Bud Hiller <dhiller@bucknell.edu> wrote:
> > 
> > we're expanding our use of e-reserves from items that have no fair use
> > implications (in our humble opinion!) to copyrighted materials that will
> > require publishers' permission.  our system is closed to users
> > attempting to access from off campus, is searchable only by instructor
> > or course, and offers password protection.  can anyone offer any sort of
> > numbers that might indicate how successful we are likely to be in
> > obtaining permissions for electronic reserves? thanks. 
> 
> Think first.  
> 
> The Fair Use provision of the Copyright Act of 1976 indicates plainly that
> permission-seeking is NOT REQUIRED in MANY (I could say MOST or, dodging
> just a few bullets, NEARLY ALL) situations that libraries use electronic
> (and paper) reserves for.  Asking for permission out of "habit" when you
> don't need to is surrendering to copyright owners a right that they do not
> by law have, and is detrimental to the collective needs of the educational
> community.  Read the law before you set up procedures.  Also look at what
> other libraries are doing (see http://www.arl.org/newsltr/192/192toc.html
> for a good, current, view on this issue).

You can find the statute at

   gopher://hamilton1.house.gov/00d:/uscode/title17/sect01/file.011

Be sure to look at the "agreement on guidelines for classroom
copying..." included in the Historical and Revision Notes.  This is the
safe harbor, no one can argue if you don't exceed these restrictions. 
However, I doubt if you can find a library that does not exceed them. 

Next you might look at the 1982 ALA Reserve Room standards.  Most
libraries don't violate these and it is unlikely that a court would find
a violation within their bounds. 

Definitely look at the ARL site. 
 
Then speak to your school's lawyers.  

Copyright law is a product of court decisions, not just the code.  Take
a look at how the court looked at fair use in Kinko's or Princeton
University Press.  The words "fair use" are legal terms.  Their
dictionary definition is not a suitable defense in a court of law. 
There are coursebooks written about "fair use" which support full
semester classes. 

Anything above the ALA standards is a guessing game.  Since CONFU
produced no useable results, we won't know what the restrictions are
going to be until after the inevitable law suits go through the appeal
process... 

After everyone tells you how you should do it, find out how exactly how
much of a risk their library is taking.  Some schools that loudly spoke
of fair use and electronic reserves several years ago are carefully
paying CCC today.  You don't need to pay CCC for everything, but I would
hesitate to presume that all of your reserves are fair use. 


Steve Melamut
melas@ils.unc.edu

Needless to say, but I will say it anyway: nothing contained herein is the
opinion of my employer or should be taken to reflect their stand on these
issues. Likewise, this is not to be taken as legal advice of any kind.

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