Electronic Reserves

[David Davis]

Recently, Steve Melamut <melamut at email.unc.edu> wrote, 
>
>> My favorite so far is
>> the professor who felt that one major incentive for using electronic
>> reserves was that under fair use, the students would no longer have to pay
>> the permission fee that is charged when using the articles in coursepacks.

I share Steve's sense of irony in this situation. It reminds me of the
story of W.C. Fields, poring over the Bible while on his deathbed. When
asked what he was doing, he replied, "Looking for loopholes."

>> With electronic reserves, everything would be free!!)

NOT!. ;-) 

My feeling is that there's not much of a 'loophole' to be found in the
E-Reserves context. It seems to me, at least, pretty plain that
digitizing a copyrighted document will be considered a "derivative use"
under copyright law. If exceptions are made for some academic uses, I
think they will be narrowly drawn. For instance, in the paper-based
world, the old ALA Model Policies for Reserves envisioned permissions
being needed for second- (or multiple- ) semester use of photocopies.

As many folks on this list know, Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) is
developing an E-Reserves permissioning service; one reason, I think,
that these rights have been difficult to obtain from publishers is
perhaps because many don't know what to charge for these new digital
uses. The fact that the CONFU process hasn't come to any resolution is,
I think, another big factor.

>>Electronic reserves will be a wonderful thing if everyone's copyright
>>protections are respected.  

Amen, brother! ;-) 

I'd be happy to discuss CCC's services in greater detail off-list with
anyone. 

>Dave Davis
>CCC Program Coordinator   http://www.copyright.com/
>ddavis at copyright.com       Voice: (508) 750-4283 x-217
>