Re: Florida Pre-paid v. College Savings Bank

On Wed, 07 Jul 1999, Sam Byassee <sam_byassee[_at_]shmm.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 06 Jul 1999, John R. Allison <allisonj[_at_]mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
> >
> > On 7/4/99, Alan Kabat <alankabat[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > "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).
> >
> > Won't happen. Very few universities want the reputation of being
> > thieves, even thieves with immunity. Moreover, if it becomes a
> > problem
>
> Although it's doubtful that such activity will become official
> university policy, by the time news about these opinions filters
> down generally to faculty members, I expect the (inaccurate) gloss
> on the holdings simply will be that "states (and state entities)
> cannot be held liable for copyright infringement." As a result,
> individual faculty members will copy, or encourage students to copy,
> without regard to copyright law.
>
> 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.
>
> Professors resort to these arguments because they believe obtaining
> permission is administratively difficult, or too time-consuming, or
> they fail to plan ahead, or they fear permission will be denied, or
> they cannot be bothered, or perhaps, simply because they disagree
> with Congress and the courts about the allocation of rights under
> copyright law. These rationales are not unique to university faculty,
> but the Florida Prepaid holding gives this group another easy reason
> not to seek permission.
>
> Thus, the long term effect of Florida Prepaid will be a greater
> mis-understanding and disregard of copyright law in academia and, by
> osmosis, generally (leading, eventually, to The End of the World As
> We Know It <g>). Perhaps I am just naively a bit surprised that the
> perspective of professors can be just as self-serving as the next
> person's. Eventually, some poor professor will be sued over a
> particularly egregious incident and will have an opportunity of
> serving as the horrible example that warns all others they should
> pay closer attention to the requirements of the copyright laws.

Sam,

    I do lots of copyright workshops for college faculty, and they are stunned to learn that what they do might be infringement. I am not sure that I am successful in changing their minds about making materials available with little concern for the rights of the owner. Despite my best efforts.

    I have actually heard law profs make the same claims... my heart is good and true, therefore, it must be okay to do this.

--
Lolly

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Laura N. Gasaway, Director of the Law Library & Professor of Law
University of North Carolina, CB # 3385
Chapel Hill, NC   27599
Phone:  919-9621321
Fax:  919-962-1193
Email:  laura_gasaway[_at_]unc.edu
  http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/gasaway.htm
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%