Re: use of electronic materials

Mary Brandt Jensen writes:
> 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.

Well, a technical reading of the act might lead to this conclusion. I would predict, however, that a court would NOT define the use of a laptop to read a book in an airport terminal to be a "public display." Surely the act contemplates other members of the public seeing--or at least being intended to see--the work in question.

>
> 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 an unpublished book, I may even make a copy for deposit in another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?

The same rationale (deterioration) doesn't apply to electronic copies. Congress seems in any event to have provided explicitly for this situation, so it is not really a problem that has arisen because of new technology.

        --Trotter Hardy

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