[WEB4LIB] Book Jacket Images for Library Web Pages

[Gary E. Masters]

At 07:16 AM 11/12/1999 -0800, Barbara Brattin wrote:
>Just a general warning to the library webmaster community about using 
>images of book jackets from Amazon.com or publishers' web sites for readers 
>advisory pages. We decided to pursue copyright permissions to use these 
>images on our "Book of the Month" section we are designing for our new web 
>site. In a scathing reply, both on paper and via telephone, Simon and 
>Schuster denied us permission. I had initially contacted Amazon.com for 
>permission to use the images from their site. They informed me that they 
>have a full-time staff that secures these individual permissions. The same 
>permission was denied to me by S&S because, simply stated, libraries do not 
>sell books. When I mentioned that we do have influence over people's 
>choices I was ridiculed.
>I never expected to be denied permission. I expected the publishing world 
>to be grateful that we would promote their products. After much 
>negotiation, S&S is going to make "an exception" for this library and 
>consider permission for individual titles. In other words, I will have to 
>cite title by title which books I will be highlighting and the dates the 
>images will appear on my page. S&S will consider these requests on a case 
>by case basis. By the way, this applies to anything in print as well, so 
>when we promote a book discussion and want to create posters that show the 
>book jacket, we need to have permission.
>I know that many libraries freely use these images already on their web 
>pages, and when questioned about copyright infringement, laugh it off.  Be 
>careful.
>For those of you who have gone through this painful permissions seeking 
>process, I'd like to hear about your experiences. Does fair use come into 
>play here? We aren't selling anything- why can't we use the images?
>We are in the process of migrating to a web catalog written in HTML. It was 
>my dream to add book jacket images to jazz up the copies availablity pages. 
>Needless to say, I'm frustrated, and after talking with Simon and Schuster, 
>I'm insulted.
>
>

Barbara:

It seems that the lawyers got hold of your request.  Alas.
Perhaps there is a good reason for their reaction, but I don't see it. We
have a new scanner in Acquisitions and would like to do the same for our
web page.  But with a limited staff and a lot to do, why bother?  I guess
saying "no good deed goes unpunished" is a real world conclusion.

Regards,


Gary Masters
Gary E. Masters
Automated Services Librarian 
(956) 326-2137 (office)
(956)326-2399 (fax)