Re: clarification

Gail L. Kovalik asks:
>
> We are a nonprofit educational institution, but completely funded by
> the federal government. However, our researchers are RIT faculty,
> not government employees. One of our charges (from the federal
> government) is to research all aspects of deafness and to disseminate
> the products of our research to the community at large.
>
> I have been named to head up the "dissemination" effort, and have been
> charged with developing an archive of all publications and other
> materials produced by NTID researchers. Because our researchers are
> tenure track faculty, the bulk of publication has been done outside
> the institute, primarily in peer-reviewed publications.
>
> We want to be able to gather these materials in one place, promote
> their availability to outside users, and disseminate copies of these
> materials. Our users (outside NTID and RIT) would primarily be other
> researchers in the field, educators of deaf students, people who work
> with deaf people (interpreters, vocational rehabilitation folks,
> employers of deaf people, counselors, etc.). Many of these people
> are not in positions where they have access to large research
> libraries (it's a small field; there are probably only three libraries
> in the country which maintain significant collections in the field of
> deafness).
>
> We are *not* charging for copies of articles, chapters from books, or
> conference papers. One copy of any given publication will be provided
> free to individual requestors. Noting Lolly Gasaway's comment of 12/1/94:
>
> >Making an occasional copy for a colleague might be fair use,
> >but if the author receives a considerable number of requests,
> >then he or she is acting as a document delivery service of sorts.
>
> IS THIS FAIR USE?
Probably not - at this level you're copying the entire article and arguably cutting into the profits of the publishers.

> If it's not, do you have suggestions or strategies that we should follow in
> complying with the copyright law? For example, linking up with the Copyright
> Clearing House (although this means we would have to do some sort of
> cost-recovery, and we really don't want to charge for dissemination of our
> research results); or negotiating a release with each individual publisher?

I'm not sure that CCC can give licenses for the type of electronic service you envisage. You may have to deal with each publisher.

  Don Berman --  

     +--------------------------------------------------------+
     |  Donald H. Berman            |          (617) 373-3346 |
     |  Richardson Professor of Law |     FAX: (617) 373-5056 |
     |  Northeastern University     | Internet:               |
     |  School of Law               |      berman[_at_]ccs.neu.edu |
     |  400 Huntington Ave.         |                         |
     |  Boston, MA 02115            |                         |
     +--------------------------------------------------------+