Re: Coursepacks

On 6/20/98, Robert Cumbow <cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> wrote:
>
> David Post <postd[_at_]erols.com> wrote:
> >
> > I can, in good faith, compile (without authorization) a single
> > collection of (presumptively copyrighted) material together into
> > a coursepack, bring it to the first class, and tell my students
> > that they must make a single copy of this compilation for their
> > own use in my class -- that, in other words, their own copying of
> > this material constitutes fair use. I think this is a fair reading
> > of these two cases (not to mention the statute itself) ...
>
> I think so, too. In fact, as I read the statute, it's fair use for
> YOU, too, not just your students.The problem is, where are you or your
> students going to get the copying done? If it's at a commercial copy
> center like Kinko's or MDS, the same problem rears its head again.
> The copying is fair use for the students, but it's an impermissible
> commercial use for the copy center. And that's the whole anomaly of
> the MDS decision. Unless the professor or the student doing the
> copying owns her own copy machine, how do you get around the fact
> that a copy center is making money off the copying?

  True, a copy shop may well ask for documentation regarding authorization (and probably would be well-advised to do so, given the thrust of these cases). But most institutions have copying machines available in the library, departmental offices, etc. I would think that this does get around the problem -- and does indeed make these decisions "anomalous".

David

David Post
<postd[_at_]erols.com> Received on Mon Jun 22 1998 - 03:20:12 GMT