Re: electronic storage

From: Kay A. Flowers <FLOWERS[_at_]ricevm1.rice.edu>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 93 14:03:41 CDT

The question:

>>A teaching colleague wants to scan 6 articles from 6 different journals
>>and 1 chapter of a book into a computer file which will be accessible on the
>>University network. It will be a Read Only file - no downloading or
>>printing - and will be password protected to be able to be accessed by only
>>the 120 students in the course. At the end of the course the file will be
>>purged.
>>
>>Please comment on the copyright implications. Thank you.
>>
>>Ron naylor

Rich Wiggins said:

>There's no such thing as a read-only file. Any half-decent terminal
>software can log a terminal session and therefore capture a file as it
>goes by.
>
>As others with more expertise in copyright respond, it'd be useful
>to hear whether the online aspect of this makes any difference at
>all; ie how is this any different than preparing a course pack
>for 120 students? In that case Kinko's et al could tell you very
>clearly how to go through the Copyright Clearance Center these days.
>
>/rich

I have been in touch with the Copyright Clearance Center and they were still not sure how to handle material that is scanned. The mechanism they have for course packet copies is a fee per page (around $.05). The person I talked to said the publishers are not yet comfortable with online material. Some of the prototype on-line reserve systems are examining this issue with publishers.

While it is true anyone can capture a terminal session, we are thinking of scanning material for display in a bitmapped format that more closely resembles a photocopy. It is also harder to capture in a terminal session. The scanned copy could be said to be comparable to the copy kept on reserve in the library. Students can read it or make their own copy. With an electronic format, we could keep track of prints and browses. We could also limit use to those in the class.

One question that has come up is that by putting the material online and making it available anywhere, some publishers are looking at display rights as part of the rights involved (not just distribution and copying). Any comments on that?

Kay Flowers                                  email:  flowers[_at_]ricevm1.rice.edu
Director of Library Technology and           voice:  713-285-5127
   Assistant University Librarian              fax:  713-285-5258

P.O. Box 1892
Rice University Library
Houston, TX 77251 Received on Tue Sep 07 1993 - 19:17:48 GMT