Re: Coursepacks

From: Dan L Burk <BURKDANL[_at_]shu.edu>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 13:35:12 -0400

On 06/25/98, John Noble <jnoble[_at_]dgsys.com> wrote:
>
> On 6/24/98, Dan L. Burk <burkdanl[_at_]shu.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hm, yes -- and while you're at it, be sure to contact me to get
> > permission to visit Yellowstone, Yosemite, or other national parks --
> > I will be happy to sell you permission to visit public lands at a
> > great price.
>
> Is your point here that permission is never required to reprint articles
> in coursepacks, or that CCC can't grant that authority, or that David's
> course is like a day in the park. Actually my initial reaction to
> Post's post was 'hell, given what they're paying for tuition, and what
> a textbook would cost, an authorized coursepack wouldn't dent the
> wallet much.'

My point is that if I set up a system to sell people tickets to visit public lands, and then when they failed to purchase them from me, sued and cited as evidence of my right to collect royalties on public lands the fact that I had set up a licensing system, the judge would (I hope) smirk cynically and throw me out of court on my ear.

But this exact scam is what the CCC is doing with their "academic permissions system," and incredibly, we take it seriously.

Lydia Loren has a nice article on this called "Redifining the Market Failure Approach to Fair Use," that just came out in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law (Fall 1997). I recommend it for a reality check.

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Dan L. Burk
Seton Hall University
burkdanl[_at_]shu.edu

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Received on Fri Jun 26 1998 - 17:30:28 GMT