use of electronic materials

From: <CNICOPY[_at_]charlie.usd.edu>
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 18:46:33 -0500 (CDT)

Trotter Hardy asked for examples where the 76 act treats printed material different than electronic materials or where performance and display are required with electronic materials to reach the functional equivalent of what we can do with print. Lets start with these two.

1. an electronic version of a manual.

If I had a paper copy of that manual, I could read it at home, in my office, in the library, in an airport terminal or at a meeting. There is no need to display or perform the manual. But if it is electronic, I have to display it on my screen to read it. And if I am located in a public place (as defined by the copyright law), that is a public display which must be authorized by the copyright law. Fair use may apply, but nothing in the law specifically contemplates this situation. And as this discussion evolves, I think we will find that the law allows us to do many things with the book, that it doesn't allow with the electronic version because of performance and display rights.

2. preservation
If I have a book in my library that is damaged or deteriorating, I may make a copy of it to preserve it under section 108. If it is an unpublished book, I may even make a copy for deposit in another library before deterioration starts. There is provision for preservation. But the statute
specifically says that I must make the copy in facsimile form and the legislative history says that means it cannot be a machine readable form. So how can I make a preservation copy of an electronic work, especially one that is not a computer program?

I have a lot more examples, but for clarity of discussion, lets start with these.

And Patrice Lyons, please, join this discussion. You and I have had interesting private discussions in this area that I think the list would benefit from.

Mary Brandt Jensen       		CNICOPY[_at_]CHARLIE.USD.EDU
Professor of Law                        (605) 677 6363
University of South Dakota              (605) 677 6357 fax

School of Law
414 E. Clark St.
Vermillion, SD 57069-2390

----------------original message---------------------------------

Mary Brandt Jensen notes that some copyright doctrines allowing uses of printed materials may not help with e-materials because the latter require public display or performance to be useful:

>

> We didn't have a similar problem in the print world. The copyright
> act contains sufficent provisions to permit ordinary uses and
> presevation of works even after the returns drop to the point
> where copyright owners have no incentive to license. But this isn't
> true of electronic works. Some key provisions of the Act applicable
> to print are not applicable to machine readable works.

If this proves true, I would tend to agree that the law has not kept up with technological changes and that legal changes are in order. But before I reached that conclusion, I wonder if we could focus the discussion with some examples. What are some circumstances under which uses of printed materials would be allowed but comparable uses (the functionally equivalent use) of e-materials would not be?

            --Trotter Hardy

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Received on Wed Sep 22 1993 - 23:42:11 GMT