Re: use of electronic materials

Howard Pasternack writes:

> In addition to deterioration, electronic media oftentimes need to be
> copied from one form to another in order to keep them usable. For example,
> data may become unusable because the particular machine to read the
> data is no longer manufactured or available.

Does anybody negotiate with providers of electronic material for the desired rights? After agreeing with Mary Brandt Jensen that maybe these sorts of materials do deteriorate, I later thought: then why don't people seek to get permission for archival copying when they buy these products?

It strikes me that initial pricing of e-products would be based on the permanence (among other things, of course) of the materials. If you are buying something that will last less than 20 years, it will be priced less than the same thing in a format (or with a license to copy) that will last indefinitely. But this is just an aspect of the buy-sell transaction, the terms of which can either be modified at the time, or which are not worth modifying.

In other words, why must the copyright act be revised to allow something (archival copying, say) that can be the subject of a contractual agreement right now?

        --Trotter Hardy

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