Re: electronic reserves (was re: textbooks on library reserve)

Hello. Copyright Clearance Center's licensing mechanism for electronic reserves (in academic insitutions) has been mentioned several times recently in this thread. More information about this program is available through CCC's web site, CCC Online http://www.copyright.com/

The whole area of digital use of copyrighted materials, especially by scanning (as distinct from photocopying) is rather new, and this non-lawyer's observation is that relevant case law is mostly not yet available. Digital is different, I think, for one thing because the risk of wide, unauthorized distribution is greater. The Association of American Publishers has a position paper on scanning (available on their web site) that lays out some additional thought on this issue.

This is an excerpt from the standard message that I send to academic users who are considering signing up for our ERS (Electronic Reserves Program) :

"As you may know by now, the 'digital use' arena is a difficult and complex one for both rightsholders and users. Add the elements of 'students' and 'Internet' to this equation, and you can see why these authorizations are not always easy to obtain and manage. Under this new (and still developing!) program, CCC will solicit the rightsholder on your behalf for the permissions you need; if possible, CCC will provide you with authorization to make and use copyrighted electronic reserve material at your academic institution."

I'd welcome additional feedback this program; if any reader on this list wants to look into the details and discuss it with me (off-list), please contact me at the address below.

Dave Davis
CCC Program Coordinator http://www.copyright.com/ ddavis[_at_]copyright.com Voice: (978) 750-4283 x-2217 Received on Fri Oct 24 1997 - 12:26:01 GMT