Scott Carlson, Legal Battle Brews Over Texts on Electronic Reserve at U. of California Libraries, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 7, 2005 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: 'Publishers are objecting to an electronic reserve system at the University of California in which libraries scan portions of books and journals and make them available free online to students. In recent months, lawyers for the Association of American Publishers have sent letters to the university that object to the use of electronic reserves on the San Diego campus. The publishers say that the use of electronic reserves is too extensive, violating the "fair use" doctrine of copyright law and depriving them of sales. University officials counter that the electronic reserves at San Diego are well within the bounds of fair use....[Mary] MacDonald, the University of California lawyer, said that the reserve system had not affected publishers' profits...."I don't think it would do anything for their cause to sue us, and I don't think they would win," she said. "If they were to sue us, they could well be making a very big public-relations mistake because our faculty are world-renowned, and we are the very people who provide their publishers with things to publish. There is a growing discontent among UC faculty about prices the publishers are charging, and faculty are starting to look at other avenues for publication of their work." Jonathan Franklin, associate law librarian at the University of Washington and a fair-use scholar, said that because the doctrine had not been well defined, some institutions have let fear of litigation determine how, or whether, they set up electronic reserves. "It's very vague as to what people can do, and institutions are so risk-averse that they license things they wouldn't normally have to license," he said. Still, he said, a legal battle might help clarify matters. "I would look forward to a resolution that was public," he said, "and that set out guidelines and standards under which universities could successfully offer electronic course reserves."'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/07/2005 10:21:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
