Re: copyright under stress

On 6/14/2000, Fritz Dolak <fdolak[_at_]gw.bsu.edu> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jun 12, 2000, Robert Cumbow <rcumbow[_at_]grahamdunn.com> wrote:
> >
> > I'd be interested in seeing concrete examples of situations in which
> > copyright causes denial of access.
>
> In my view and in my experiences here at Ball State, I can relate
> that dealing with permission for transmitting audio/visual materials
> for distance education [Section 110 (2) of Our Copyright Law]
> causes denial of access. How? By the copyright owner either
> totally denying our request for the transmission or placing such
> a high licensing fee for the transmission that we, as a public
> institution, cannot afford the cost. Effect: on-campus
> students get to view the audio/visual material in class; the
> off-campus students do not. That's denial of access in my
> view -- admittedly, a non-lawyerly view.
>
> One concrete example [a classic horror story that I reiterate
> whenever I can]. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum
> Development has the rights for 19 curriculum videos we wanted
> to use for a graduate course for in-the-field teachers. Total
> cost for transmitting these 19 videos: $27,271.00. Obviously
> for a course with 30 remote students, this cost was prohibitive
> and confiscatory...unless, of course, we wanted to raise class
> fees $900 per remote student ;-)
>
> Yeah, I know, you might say this is a licensing issue, but
> nonetheless, our 30 remote, off-campus students were denied
> access ...

You're right... I would say it is a *strictly* licensing issue. It is emphatically not a "denial of access" created by copyright law, in my very humble opinion.

Whether it's licensing schemes, goods and services, private education or any other thing... all come with a price. As a consumer, it's up to me to assess the relative value of a thing against the price that I will pay for it. It's up to me to determine if I can afford it or not. If I cannot afford it or if I don't believe its value is worth the asking price, then I have to find a workable alternative.

That is the crux of the issue you described above. You do have access to the materials for "x" price. *You* have determined that the price is either unreasonable (in your opinion) or it's prohibitive economically for you. There are alternatives. You could purchase one copy of each tape and circulate them round-robin to the remote students. You could provide to those remote students a "resource list" of places in their respective communities (other colleges, libraries, etc) where they might view the videos. You could select other materials that are less expensive but deliver the same ideas. You could assess the $900 per student. It is *your* choice as to how you resolve the situation.

Regards,
Marty

Marty Hayes
<9ball[_at_]hostsite.net> Received on Fri Jun 16 2000 - 20:11:13 GMT