Re: copying by private business

On Mon, 25 Aug 1997, Harold Federow <hfederow[_at_]u.washington.edu> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 21 Aug 1997, Jeramy Townsley <jtownsle[_at_]indyvax.iupui.edu> wrote:
> >
> > I've been on this list for several months and haven't seen anything
> > relating to this question, so I thought I would pose it. As background,
> > I work at a medical library in the inter-library loan department for a
> > state university, so deal with copyright for educational purposes
> > everyday. We mainly service the medical researchers, professors and
> > students here on campus.
> >
> > I am considering breaking off on my own and starting a medical
> > information business focusing on small medical practices, insurance
> > companies, medical labs, etc. Since the library is non-profit, and an
> > educational institution, I know we enjoy certain rights of fair use for
> > educations purposes. However, I have no idea where to start looking for
> > regulations about copyright law for for-profit businesses. From the
> > little information I have been able to gather, it almost looks like I
> > would not be able to photocopy articles for profit to sell to my clients
> > who request them. Is this the case? Or is there a way to provide this
> > service?
>
> I assume you mean without paying royalties to the copyright owner. If
> that's what you mean, then no, you probably can't. If you pay
> royalties, then sure you can.

There is a temptation to ignore the law and go right ahead and copy the materials, but this is an area just waiting for litigation. Some copy services even hire student employees and send them into academic libraries to copy materials on their student copy cards. I suspect the only reason we have not seen any cases is that the publishers are waiting for a copy service large enough to afford the litigation.

steve melamut
melas[_at_]ils.unc.edu Received on Wed Aug 27 1997 - 13:31:56 GMT