Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright Incentives in the GSU Appeals Court Ruling | Peer to Peer Review

By Kevin L. Smith on November 13, 2014 1 Comment

The word “incentive” appears ten times in the ruling issued last month by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the Georgia State University (GSU) copyright infringement case, but it is slightly unclear in this rather odd opinion just who is the object of the incentive created by copyright. In seven of those ten instances, the incentive is clearly intended to benefit the author. But there are three sentences at the very end of the majority opinion (the other three uses of the word) where the court seems to interrupt its analysis to state that the incentive belongs to publishers, not authors. It is, I think, worth parsing this apparent contradiction in order to guess at how the trial court might think about incentives on remand.

Filed Under: Academic Libraries, Copyright and Fair Use, Litigation, Peer to Peer Review Tagged With: GSU Discussion: View 1 Comment

Court Reverses Ruling on Publishers vs. Georgia State E-Reserve Case

By Lisa Peet on October 20, 2014 Leave a Comment

On October 17 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta unanimously reversed the District Court’s ruling on the Publishers v. Georgia State University (GSU) Fair Use Case.

Filed Under: Academic Libraries, Copyright and Fair Use, Industry News, Legislation, Publishing Tagged With: academic publishers, Cambridge University Press, copyright, e-reserves, fair use, Georgia State University, Oxford University Press, Sage Publications Discussion: Leave a Comment

Hard Cases Make Bad Law | Peer to Peer Review

By Kevin L. Smith on September 4, 2014 1 Comment

The legal adage that hard cases make bad law apparently has deep roots in English common law, and it was cited in a Supreme Court decision by no less a Justice than Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Its applicability has been disputed over the years, but in recent weeks we have seen the truth of the maxim illustrated in some copyright debates. Colleagues have recently sent me two different stories where the extremes of copyright law are in play—hard cases, I suppose. Both offer confirmation that when the facts are really well outside the realm of normal expectations, people can draw very bad legal conclusions. But both also offer opportunities to remind ourselves of fundamental truths about law, journalism, and copyright.

Filed Under: Academic Libraries, Copyright and Fair Use, Peer to Peer Review Discussion: View 1 Comment

Asserting Rights We Don’t Have: Libraries and “Permission To Publish” | Peer to Peer Review

By Rick Anderson on August 21, 2014 14 Comments

In late June, a minor brouhaha erupted when the library at the University of Arkansas suspended reporters from the Washington Free Beacon, an online newspaper, from using its special collections. The reason given by library administrators was that on multiple occasions the newspaper’s reporters had published content from those collections without asking permission, as library policy requires. Much has been made in the right-wing press about the politics supposedly surrounding this conflict. I want to focus on a different issue: the practice of making patrons request library permission before republishing content drawn from documents in our special collections.

Filed Under: Academic Libraries, Copyright and Fair Use, Peer to Peer Review Tagged With: permission to publish, public domain, special collections Discussion: View 14 Comments

Harvard’s Copyright First Responders to the Rescue

By Lisa Peet on August 13, 2014 1 Comment

While most academic librarians are familiar with the basics of copyright law, the questions they’re asked are getting more complex. Issues of fair use and open access, MOOCs and repositories, and the push to digitize mean that students and faculty need more guidance on copyright matters than ever. This spring Kyle K. Courtney, Harvard University’s Copyright Advisor, brought together a pilot group of librarians known as Copyright First Responders (CFRs) to address this situation.

Filed Under: Academic Libraries, Copyright and Fair Use Tagged With: Harvard Discussion: View 1 Comment

Of Bundles, Bindings, and the Next Great Copyright Law | Peer to Peer Review

By Kevin L. Smith on April 17, 2014 1 Comment

Everyone who teaches copyright uses the same metaphor, I think. Copyright is a “bundle of sticks.” A property owner is said to have a bundle, where each “stick” represents an exclusive right. I had not really thought deeply about this metaphor until it was raised at a conference I attended whose theme was what a new copyright law might look like. There was a lot of talk about the problems with the current law. Until then it had not occurred to me that one of those problems was the bundle of rights itself.

Filed Under: Academic Libraries, Copyright and Fair Use, Peer to Peer Review Discussion: View 1 Comment

Authors Guild Appeals Dismissal of Google Books Lawsuit

By Ian Chant on April 16, 2014 4 Comments

Last November Judge Denny Chin dealt a blow to the lawsuit filed by publishers and the Author’s Guild against tech giant Google and its Google Books Service (GBS). Chin, of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Appeals Court, dismissed the case, which challenged the legality of GBS providing searchable PDFs of copyrighted works when Judge Denny. On Friday, April 11, the Guild filed an appeal in the case, marking the latest flareup in a long-running suit with major implications for copyright law in the U.S.

Filed Under: Copyright and Fair Use, Digital Content, Litigation Tagged With: Author's Guild, fair use, Google Books Discussion: View 4 Comments

Kevin Gorman: Berkeley’s Wikipedian-in-Residence

By Ian Chant on March 12, 2014 2 Comments

Whether librarians and faculty like it or not, Wikipedia remains at the heart of the research process for many undergraduate students. Rather than trying to stem the tide, the University of California Berkeley is trying to make students there into more responsible and effective users of the online encyclopedia. To that end, the university’s American Cultures program has hired alumni Kevin Gorman as the first Wikipedian-In-Residence at a US university.

Filed Under: Academic Libraries, Copyright and Fair Use, Digital Resources, Technology Tagged With: Kevin Gorman, UC Berkeley, Wikipedia Discussion: View 2 Comments

What Rights Come with That Movie? | Backtalk

By Laura Jenemann and Brandon Butler on January 9, 2014 8 Comments

Imagine that you bought a new jacket on Amazon.com and received an email a month later from the manufacturer telling you that you paid the wrong amount for the jacket and that you owe the company several hundred dollars more. This may seem implausible, but for academic libraries that buy DVDs through distributors like Amazon.com, it is a recurring problem: after buying DVDs at retail prices, they get an official-looking email saying they owe more.

Filed Under: Academic Libraries, Backtalk, Copyright and Fair Use, LJ in Print Tagged With: classroom, DVDs, LJ_2014_Jan_01, public performance right, video Discussion: View 8 Comments

Digital Firsts

By Matt Enis on December 18, 2013

The U.S Department of Commerce (DoC) has been collecting public comment on the topic of the first sale doctrine and digital files in recent weeks; the agency was scheduled to meet about the issue on December 12 in Washington, DC. First sale doctrine is a set of exemptions to U.S. copyright law that permit consumers to resell used books or DVDs and libraries to loan books without seeking permission from publishers. Yet for reasons examined in more detail below, first sale exemptions have not translated well for digital content. The DoC’s call for public comment could mark the beginning of a campaign to reassess what copyright and first sale mean in the modern digital era, notes one expert.