Re: Course packets questions

> If I hold the copyright to a book, may I make multiple photocopies
> from it for a class? Does it matter whether or not the book is out
> of print? Our library permitted me to put only a single photocopy
> of the parts I wanted to use on reserve for a class of fifty!
>
> Yours,
> Warren Sanderson
> <warrens[_at_]vax2.concordia.ca>

Although you may own the copyright to a book, if you have a contract granting a publisher the exclusive right to publish the work in book form, you may be breaching the contract by distributing copies of the work (other than copies you bought or were given by the Publisher). The issue is not whether the work is out of print, but whether the rights that you granted to the publisher have reverted to you.

In light of recent discussion on this list, I hesitate to mention that even if the right to publish the book reverted to you, many Publishers take the position that you may NOT make photocopies or grant photocopy rights to others of their edition of the book without their consent because of the "thin" copyright that they hold in the layout of the book.

Publishers will often stress this point in their reversion letters to authors. However, if the right to publish the book has reverted, the publisher cannot alone grant photocopy rights. Legally, I believe, the library would need both the copyright holder's permission and the book publisher's permission to make photocopies of a book for which rights have reverted to the Author.

Has anybody had a different experience?

Eric Zohn
NY, NY
ezohn[_at_]wma.com

The above is not legal advice, is an opinion only, not necessarily the view of my employer, etc., etc. Received on Mon Apr 08 1996 - 21:14:02 GMT