On 07/13/2000, Rose Christensen <rchriste[_at_]nwacc.cc.ar.us> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jul 06, 2000, Tyler Ochoa <tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu> wrote:
> >
> > On 06/30/2000, Mike A. Cobb <mikecobb[_at_]liberty.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > Is it a copyright violation for a library to place a personal item
> > > belonging to a teacher on reserve for his/her class to use? Teachers
> > > frequently place library-owned material on reserve for their class,
> > > but it seems different to do that with their own personal items.
> >
> > No, it is not a violation. Sec. 109(a) states that "the owner of a
> > particular copy ... lawfully made under this title ... is entitled,
> > without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise
> > dispose of the possession of that copy." Under this section, known
> > as the "first-sale doctrine," the person who owns a lawful copy may
> > lend it to anyone else.
>
> I write in response to Mike Cobb's question about a professor's
> personal items on reserve in the library:
>
> My understanding is that if the library does not own the
> book/video/journal to be placed on reserve, the instructor may put
> a personal copy on reserve for one semester. If a longer reserve
> time is needed, the instructor must receive copyright clearance and
> attach the permission notice to the reserve item. Is this myth or
> fact -- or individual library's perogative?
A library is certainly entitled to require whatever permissions it deems appropriate before accepting the property of another to hold on reserve, but, as Prof. Ochoa points out, such permissions are not required by law as long as the library is given the professor's original, lawfully obtained copy of the work (and not, for example, a photocopy of his copy).
Kevin Grierson
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Mon Mar 26 2007 - 00:35:40 GMT