Re: a sad story

Tim Phillips <phillips[_at_]mail.nhn.ou.edu> wrote:
>
> Recently I requested, through interlibrary loan, a copy of Lily
> Lomax's article "Trail Songs of the Cow-Puncher" Overland Monthly
> 59,24-29(1912). That's right, the year was Ninteen-Twelve. The copy
> arrived today, stamped with a stamp that said, "COPYRIGHT MATERIAL Not
> To Be Further Reproduced Without Permission Of The Copyright Owner".
> What do the monopolists need copyright extension for? The library
> which sent me this 1912 article seems already to have been cowed
> into granting a de-facto ten-year extension.

Oh c'mon...

Even the largst academic research libraries are lucky to have more than one professional librarian managing an entire ILL unit. The vast majority of people processing orders like yours are clerical support staff, and 99% of what they process is material with an active copyright.

I think there is probably a parallel here somewhere with judge's clerks and paralegals being expected to know the law... I doubt we want them interpreting copyright law any more than we want ILL clerks doing so.

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