Re: Florida Pre-paid v. College Savings Bank

On Wed, 07 Jul 1999, Sam Byassee <sam_byassee[_at_]shmm.com> wrote:
>
> Recently, I participated in a legal issues panel in a university
> setting and was taken aback by the ease with which professors
> justified the copying of articles or excerpts from texts for
> classroom use. The majority opinion seemed to be, "I have no moral
> qualms about making copies because it's not stealing; that is, it
> is not depriving the copyright holder of anything she would have
> otherwise received, because if my class were required to purchase
> the entire textbook/journal/volume of proceedings, etc. then I would
> not assign it."
>
> Regardless of whether this opinion is sound (and I believe a strong
> argument can be made that it is not), it provides an example of a
> prevalent effort in academia -- a leap to exploit supposed loopholes
> or exceptions in the copyright laws through which to drive the truck
> of unlimited-copying-for-classroom-use.

Uhhhh... Mr. Byassee? That truck has already plowed right through that loophole. I quote from the 1976 revisions to the copyright act:

   The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by    reproduction in copies and phonorecords ... for purposes such    as ... teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use),    scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.    (U.S.C. 107 - 1976)

The professors' effort to which you refer strikes me as an assertion and affirmation of exisiting rights under the 1976 Act.

• John Logie <antrobus[_at_]ripco.com>