Fair Use Guidelines Teleconference

     I'm curious if anyone else on this list viewed yesterday's teleconference on the Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia. It was a great program, particularly the first hour. I thought it would be a dull, videotaped panel discussion, but it was put together quite professionally, with an introductory segment giving information about the various organizations that have taken stabs at fair use guidelines
(for duplicating books and periodicals, for distance education, for
digital imaging, etc.) as well as a helpful introduction to copyright law and the fair use limitation. They did a nice job of laying out the terrain of the controversy: on one side are educators, who are seen by publishers as wanting to use the property of others for free; on the other side are these copyright owners, who are seen by educators as standing in the way of academic progress, the free and open exchange of ideas and information. All seemed to agree, however, that too many faculty were providing negative role models to students and violating academic ethics by all to readily coopting others' intellectual property and using it as if it were their own.

     The teleconference's two panels (one in Washington, the other in Iowa) consisted of lawyers and representatives from publishers or publishers' groups, academic organizations, colleges and universities, and even from elementary and secondary school systems who had variously participated in the *two-year* process of negotiating these guidelines. The publishers' representatives were particularly slick, putting me in mind of that hidden adage of the law, recently quoted here on CNI: "Watch the money." These representatives of copyright owners were strenuously promoting the guidelines to academic institutions, one lawyer even likening them to the Bible or Ten Commandments (!), as a guide to ethical behavior and an elaboration of a simpler, higher principle (in this case, the copyright statute). It's not surprising that they were so gung-ho. After all, these guidelines provide an extremely tight "safe harbor" of fair use, essentially allowing use without prior authorization from copyright owners only of quite small portions of material, for strictly limited periods of time, in multimedia projects presented in classroom settings. Any broader dissemination would have to be limited to LAN's with restricted access. The WWW is off limits. So, of course the copyright owners are encouraging academic institutions to quickly endorse these guidelines. Like contented sheep, many of the representatives of academia also encouraged this step, taking comfort in the fact that the guidelines at least provide some certainty in the application of the fair use limitation. As this, sadly, is likely to be the prevailing mood in the law, as well, I certainly intend to encourage my university to follow these guidelines. (They are available for viewing or downloading at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/avs/fairuse/guidelinedoc.html.) Still, academic institutions should keep in mind that there might be some instances when a use might be deemed a fair use that doesn't fall within the strictures of the guidelines. They will never have the force of law but will only provide an easy refuge for people not willing to apply the vague four-factor test of fair use.

      I would be interested to read the impressions of anyone else who viewed this program!

Matthew Watters
Copyright Clearance Specialist
Copy Services Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0513
(402) 472-4663

Fax: (402) 472-2144
e-mail: watters[_at_]prtaxp.unl.edu

"If you drop your keys in molten lava just let 'em go 'cause, man, they're gone."--Jack Handy. Received on Fri Feb 21 1997 - 15:45:09 GMT