A federal judge on
Friday outlined many ways colleges can continue to cite the doctrine of
"fair use" to permit their making electronic copies of books and other materials
for use in teaching and scholarship. In a landmark ruling over many issues not
previously litigated to this degree in the digital era, the judge rejected many
of the claims in a suit by three prominent publishers against Georgia State
University. In 94 of the 99 instances cited by the publishers as copyright
violations, the judge ruled that Georgia State and its professors were covered
by fair use. And the judge also rejected the publishers' ideas about how to
regulate e-reserves -- ideas that many academic librarians said would be
unworkable.
At the same time, however, the judge imposed a strict limit of 10 percent on the volume of a book that may be covered by fair use (a proportion that would cover much, but by no means all, of what was in e-reserves at Georgia State, and probably at many other colleges). And the judge ruled that publishers may have more claims against college and university e-reserves if the publishers offer convenient, reasonably priced systems for getting permission (at a price) to use book excerpts online. The lack of such systems today favored Georgia State, but librarians who were anxiously going through the decision were speculating that some publishers might be prompted now to create such systems, and to charge as much as the courts would permit.
Source: Inside Higher Education Mary 14, 2012
At the same time, however, the judge imposed a strict limit of 10 percent on the volume of a book that may be covered by fair use (a proportion that would cover much, but by no means all, of what was in e-reserves at Georgia State, and probably at many other colleges). And the judge ruled that publishers may have more claims against college and university e-reserves if the publishers offer convenient, reasonably priced systems for getting permission (at a price) to use book excerpts online. The lack of such systems today favored Georgia State, but librarians who were anxiously going through the decision were speculating that some publishers might be prompted now to create such systems, and to charge as much as the courts would permit.
Source: Inside Higher Education Mary 14, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment