Royalty costs for E-Reserve items?

[Pat Costigan]

Think about this -- regarding the comment from Carolyn Gonzalez, the $1.80 per 
request for clearance is for each individual use, not for the right to publish 
which, in effect, will be what is being done. Unless you can guarantee the 
digital copy can be only read and not copied and printed by anyone accessing it,
the case is probably extremely strong each access would require a separate 
payment of the $1.80 AND of the payment to the copyright holder of whatever they
wished to charge.
This becomes even clearer in the second copy from John: "I was glad to see Brian
Neilsen's view that Fair Use includes serving documents to a specific class 
electronically.  This is where I hope copyright law winds up." Just exactly what
is the difference between "serving documents to a specific class" than mass 
copying each document, binding them together, and handing them out to the class 
-- which is publishing an anthology and is certainly not fair use by any 
previous interpretation.
Perhaps the "reluctant professors" mentioned in the beginning of this string, 
since they are also the authors of much of the material, were quite correct to 
be hesitant at placing their notes etc. on a server from which they can be SO 
EASILY copied, manipulated, stolen and plagiarized. 
Generally I'm on the side of "free and available", but I think we need to pay a 
bit more attention to the view from the other side. (I also think perhaps the 
Army should pay a little more attention to the costs and benefits associated 
with a "completely digital library" -- someday, maybe, but completely digital at
this point in time is highly questionable both in feasibility and public 
expense.)

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  Patrick W. Costigan, Medical Librarian  **All opinions are my own, but 
  North Memorial Health Care              **you are more than welcome 
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  pat.costigan at cl.nmmc.com   Voice 612-520-5678    Fax 612-520-1453
  

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Royalty costs for E-Reserve items?
Author:  jpearce at u.washington.edu at The-World
Date:    4/15/97 11:38 AM


> From: Carolyn_Gonzalez at medcom1.smtplink.amedd.army.mil
>      I'm in the process of organizing a completely digital library for the 
>      US Army's Center for Healthcare Education & Studies.  [snip]
>      
>      As far as copyright goes, the library has a membership with the 
>      Copyright Clearance Center.  This costs us $105 a year, plus $1.80 per 
>      request for clearance, in addition to any royalty fee the copyright 
>      holder wants to add.  I haven't requested copyright clearance for the 
>      stacks of journal articles these instructors are waiting to send me, 
>      (We're just now getting ready to order the SIRSI product.) but once I 
>      do, I'll be able to let you know what kind of royalties people want to 
>      tack on for electronic access to their materials.  When I request 
>      copyright clearance, I'll be specifying that I'll be making electronic 
>      copies.
  
I would be *very* interested in finding out what the cost difference 
is for electronic vs.. print royalties.  The U. of Washington Health 
Sciences Library is working on a pilot project putting a few articles 
on Reserve.  Personally, I would like to see us do much more, but the 
copyright questions need to be resolved first.  If the electronic 
royalty costs are substantially lower than multi-copy print, we might 
consider avoiding the Fair Use issue entirely by just getting the 
rights. 
  
I was glad to see Brian Neilsen's view that Fair Use includes serving 
documents to a specific class electronically.  This is where I hope 
copyright law winds up.  Have there been any court cases testing it 
yet?
  
John Pearce
  
P.S.  If you're interested in E-Reserves specifically, check out the 
list in the cc: line.