More on electronic reserves -Reply

[Chuck Bearden]

I wonder what you all think of the Declaration of Writer's Economic Rights on 
the homepage of the National Writer's Union:

	http://www.nwu.org/nwu/docs/decrights.htm

I quote a bit of it (I trust this is fair use):

"Broader Protection for Uses of Writers' Work

With the advent of new technologies, writers' control over ownership of 
their work is eroding. Writers must have the right to control and negotiate 
compensation for new uses of work, including electronic databases, CD-ROMs 
and software.  Writers should also receive compensation for subsequent uses 
of their work, including library lending as is the case in a number of other 
nations." 


Though I'm not a published author, I think it is entirely fair to consider 
the product of the pen to be the property of the writer or of whomever she 
assigns it to.  Perhaps we librarians are as apt to consider the writer's 
rights last as are the publishers (though publishers wield greater economic 
power over writers).  

I'm not too crazy about the bit about compensating for library lending, 
though.  

BTW, the union is working to establish a clearinghouse for compensating 
writers who still hold rights to their publications: 

	http://www.nwu.org/nwu/prc/prc1.htm

Food for thought, as Ana Cleveland says.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Bearden			email: cbearden at hpl.lib.tx.us
Catalog Department		voice: 713/247-3499
Houston Public Library		fax:   713/247-3158
500 McKinney Ave.
Houston, TX  77002		-=> NOT SPEAKING FOR HPL <=-
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--- On Tue, 10 Sep 1996 14:52:43 -0700  Brian Nielsen <b-nielsen at nwu.edu> 
wrote:

>Two specific points:
>1) Most of the copyrights for journal articles, which are frequently what
>faculty want put on reserve, are held by publishers, not authors like you
>and I.  When library schools have assigned to their students stuff I've
>written, it never has occurred to me to seek any sort of royalty payment,
>nor would I want the publishers to ask for it.  If they did, I'd be
>rethinking where I sent articles pretty quickly. 
>
>2) The CHANGES in the copyright law now being discussed in Congress threaten
>to undermine values that librarianship has historically championed.  This is
>a SERIOUS issue for librarians to be concerned about, particularly as it
>applies in electronic environments.  As text moves from paper to phosphor,
>information is in danger of complete commodification -- if you don't pay for
>it, you don't get it.  I would recommend a look into the Digital Future
>Coalition website at http://www.ari.net/dfc/ or Paula Samuelson's paper at
>http://www.hotwired.com/wired/whitepaper.html .  
>
>Electronic reserve is but one area where issues of fair use will be played
>out.  I think that the most basic access libraries have long offered -- the
>borrowing of books -- may be endangered by changes in the law when "books"
>have only a digital, not material, presence.  Ability to pay should not be
>an essential prerequisite for access to our future cultural heritage.  
>
>Brian Nielsen
>
>
>		Brian Nielsen, Ph.D.
>		Manager, Learning Technologies Group
>		 Academic Technologies
>		Northwestern University
>		2129 N. Campus Drive
>		Evanston, IL  60208-2850
>		(847)491-2170   fax:(847)491-3824
>		email: b-nielsen at nwu.edu
>		http://www.nwu.edu/people/b-nielsen
>
>

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