Re: Multimedia Guidelines and Fair use

I must have somehow missed this email when it first appeared on the list but think it might be helpful to reply now to set the record straight.

1. While discussed at CONFU sessions, The Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia were negotiated outside the CONFU process. Many library and educational assns had representatives at these negotiating sessions. These representatives contributed to the wording of the guidelines.
2. While some educational and library assn chose not to endorse the guidelines, others did endorse them. The various "politics" the surrounded database negotiations at that time were the primary reason that these, and other guidelines, went unendorsed by some in the educational community.

And most important.......

The Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia were endorsed by the appropriate subcommittee in the House of representatives in Sept. 1996, and are available for use by educators and student in the US. The choice is the individual's. It really doesn't matter what assn didn't endorse them at this point. These guidelines remain a most useful tool to those developing and using multimedia in an education or nonprofit setting.

Lisa Livingston

>RE: Lisa Livingston's comments on libraries and the CONFU Educational
>Multimedia Guidelines.
>
>Lisa Livingston states that "some" libraries chose not to endorse the
>CONFU Educational Multimedia Guidelines. In fact, the American Library
>Association, the American Association of Law Libraries, the Art Libraries
>Society of North America, the Medical Library Association, Association of
>Research Libraries, and the Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries
>went on record rejecting these guidelines. This is an impressive list of
>library associations that concluded that the guidelines restricted fair
>use (their positions can be reviewed at the following site:
>http://www.ninch.org/News/CONFU_Report.html). I believe that this leaves
>no doubt that the library community overwhelmingly rejected the multimedia
>guidelines.
>
>Many prominent higher education associations also rejected these guidelines.
>Among those in the "no" column were the Association of American Universities,
>the American Association of State Colleges & Universities, and the National
>Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. The latter two
>associations submitted a joint letter in which they stated that "each of the
>guidelines contains provisions that identify formulaic prescriptions and
>restrict educational institutions from using educational materials to promote
>learning anytime and anyplace." The presidents of these two associations
>proposed the adoption of "best practice" models instead of guidelines.
>
>Michael G. Webster
>Eastern Oregon University

-- 
Lisa Livingston
Director, Instructional Media Development Center
School of Education, University of Wisconsin
1025 West Johnson Street, Suite 142
Madison, Wisconsin  53706
V:608.262.3431 F:608.262.6447
lmlivingston[_at_]facstaff.wisc.edu