electronic library issues

>> 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.
>[text deleted]
>> 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.
>
> I hope it does and I wish I could be sure. That was the position that
> libraries took in the early years concerning the performance of an
> audiovisual work or a sound recording in a closed listening room with
> only one or a very small number of people present. But many attorneys
> took a different point of view and over the years the line of cases
> on public performances of audiovisual works, especially the most recent
> ones including On Command Video, don't bear this out. They take a
> pretty technical view that it is the character of the place, not who
> is actually watching that matters.

I'm finding this a fascinating discussion. Do any of you know if there are legislative initiatives in progress to amend the copyright statute to cover these situations?

Arthur Bickel Received on Sun Sep 26 1993 - 13:30:23 GMT