Welcome, Meghann.
It strikes me that the devil is in the details. The instructor has described the work as "notes" and also as "a summary of each chapter." If the notes are more in the nature of the instructor's own reaction to the book, or criticism and comment on the book, fair use would seem easily to prevail. But if it is indeed a "summary of each chapter," it might look more like a derivative work, and be damned to liability even under a fair use analysis if this summary could substitute for the students having to buy a copy. I see a lot of warning flags on this one (the instructor seems to be saying that the direct quotations are so extensive that they were not separately noted), and I would advise against reproduction and distribution unless my own personal examination of the notes and the book convinced me that it fell on the fair use side.
John
On May 10, 2005, at 4:00 PM, Meghann Matwichuk wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am a new subscriber to this listserv and look forward to learning
> more about copyright issues through the discussions that take place
> here.
>
> I've received the following request from an instructor:
>
> "I have read a great book and taken notes on each chapter. I have
> typed them up and am wondering if I could give them to the
> students. They do NOT include references and quotations because I
> state at the beginning that they are all the author's words and
> voice and none of it can be attributed to me in any way,
> whatsoever. It is a summary of each chapter. Let me know if you
> think I should NOT let the students have a copy of the summary. I
> don't want to get into trouble and more important, I don't want to
> encourage plagiarism in any form. If by giving them a copy of my
> notes from the book, they begin to think they don't have to use
> footnotes or that it is ok to use someone else's voice, I would
> feel tremendous regret."
>
> My instinct is that she is within fair use in distributing these
> notes to her students. I plan on referring her the following
> checklist:
>
> http://copyright.iupui.edu/checklist.htm
>
> Any thoughts / opinions on the matter? I suppose I'm just looking
> for some reinforcement before I respond to her -- or to hear if I'm
> missing something obvious! Thanks in advance.
>
> Best,
>
> ******************************
> Meghann R. Matwichuk
> Instructional Media Department
> Morris Library
> University of Delaware
> 181 S. College Ave.
> Newark, DE 19717
> (302) 831-1475
>
> #############################################################
> This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to
> the mailing list <CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org>.
> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <CNI-COPYRIGHT-off[_at_]cni.org>
> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <CNI-COPYRIGHT-digest[_at_]cni.org>
> To switch to the INDEX mode, E-mail to <CNI-COPYRIGHT-index[_at_]cni.org>
> To postpone your subscription, E-mail to <CNI-COPYRIGHT-null[_at_]cni.org>
> Send administrative queries to <CNI-COPYRIGHT-request[_at_]cni.org>
>
> Visit the CNI-COPYRIGHT e-mail list archive at <https://
> mail2.cni.org/Lists/CNI-COPYRIGHT/>.
>
Received on Wed May 11 2005 - 02:20:00 GMT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Mon Mar 26 2007 - 00:35:55 GMT