Re: Re: Scanning books into electronic format

John M. has the key point: "if ever that second copy can be detected, there is a pretty good chance that the reason it was detected will be a factor weighing against fair use." Distribution that either makes money for the distributor, and/or takes money from the copyright owner is a) harmful and b) discoverable. That's a case.

Personal archival copies of literary works, back-up copies of audio-visual works, and even one-off mixes of musical works, are, for all practical purposes, undiscoverable; and inasmuch as they are undiscoverable, they are a) more likely than not fair use, and b) unharmful. You cannot justify the cost of the postage on a cease and desist letter.

John Noble

At 4:15 PM -0400 9/6/06, John T. Mitchell wrote:
>Steve makes a good point. There is no "buy one, make a copy free"
>provision in the US Copyright Act even if it is "for personal use."
>Even the Section 1008 (non-commercial use) provision applies only to
>certain kinds of works, and was established on the assumption that
>royalties were being paid on blank media to offset the losses due to
>generally undetectable reproduction.
>
>That said, I believe Section 107 (fair use) could leave room for a
>digital reproduction made solely to aid the owner of the paper copy
>in exploring its contents. However, if ever that second copy can be
>detected, there is a pretty good chance that the reason it was
>detected will be a factor weighing against fair use. OCR software
>has been around for quite some time, and the very basis for its
>existence is to make digital reproductions -- without regard to
>copyright -- and try to decipher the text from them. It is one
>thing for a lawyer to use "scan and OCR" to find the needle in a
>haystack of evidentiary documents, but quite another if the lawyer
>then publishes them beyond the confines of the litigation.
>
>John M
>
>On Sep 6, 2006, at 2:05 PM, Steven Jamar wrote:
>
>>Just changing the media of on which something is made without more
>>is generally considered to be making a copy, not a derivative work.
>>So just scanning a book into an electronic form would qualify as
>>making a copy, not making a derivative work. This goes back at
>>least to the Batlin case.
>>
>>Where does US Copyright law permit the owner of a copy to make a
>>copy as a backup? It does so in section 117 for software, but I
>>don't recall such a right for ordinary hard copies of literary
>>works or sound recordings.
>>
>>Steve
>>
>>
>>
>>On Sep 6, 2006, at 11:45 AM, Carl Oppedahl wrote:
>>
>>>johnmcn[_at_]bellsouth.net wrote on 9/5/2006 4:55 PM:
>>>
>>>>Conversion from printed form to an electronic form is likely also
>>>>a derivative work (not merely just a copy or reproduction) and
>>>>the right to create derivative works is also an exclusive right
>>>>of the copyright owner.
>>>>
>>>The US copyright law explicitly permits the owner of a copy of a
>>>work to make backups .
>>>
>>
>>--
>>Prof. Steven D. Jamar vox: 202-806-8017
>>Howard University School of Law fax: 202-806-8567
>>2900 Van Ness Street NW mailto:stevenjamar[_at_]gmail.com
>>Washington, DC 20008 http://iipsj.com/SDJ/
>>
>>"No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human
>>hopes than a public library."
>>
>>Samuel Johnson, 1751
>>
>>
>>
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Received on Fri Sep 08 2006 - 00:35:01 GMT