Re: Florida Pre-paid v. College Savings Bank

On 7/4/99, Alan Kabat <alankabat[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> Here's an interesting point that was just made about the impact of
> Florida Pre-Paid v. College Savings Bank to the copyright world ---
>
> "This ruling is likely to have serious repercussions in such areas as
> copyright law, where state universities, now chafing under expanded
> copyright protection, might decide to copy and distribute to students
> whatever literature they wish, ignoring the copyright laws but safe
> in the knowledge that they cannot be sued." (S. Sherry, "Some Targets
> Were Larger Than Others," Wash. Post., July 4, 1999, at B-4).
>
> Those who remember the cases involving Kinko's, Texaco, and related
> "copy shop" scenarios, will see the potential for state universities
> taking over the course-pack material market, at least for their own
> students.

Won't happen. Very few universities want the reputation of being thieves, even thieves with immunity. Moreover, if it becomes a problem in a given state, I foresee state legislatures stopping their state colleges and universities from doing it, and legislatures certainly have the means to do so.

John Allison
allisonj[_at_]mail.utexas.edu Received on Wed Jul 07 1999 - 01:53:26 GMT