Re: Copyright & The New World Economic Order

On 7/20/99, Lance Purple <lpurple[_at_]netcom.com> wrote:
>
> I haven't seen anyone on this list asking for a rigid Napoleonesque
> code to cover every possible copyright situation; but I think it'd
> be a lot easier for the average citizen if USC 17 107 contained at
> a short enumeration of some guaranteed fair uses, with the list not
> limiting or impairing other possible fair uses subject to the above
> four factors.

The library world has come to agreements with publishers that amount to "fair use guidelines" that do enumerate some elements (i.e. no more than five inter-library loan copies from a single journal in a single year, etc.). The problem with such enumerations is that for them to be acceptable they tend to be minimal: that is, they enumerate a very conservative interpretation of fair use. In practice, the numbers are treated not as a minimum 'safe' level but a maximum ('no more than...') and libraries begin turning away requests beyond the safe number. What we end up with in practice is something less than what fair use would probably allow.

Karen Coyle                    karen.coyle[_at_]ucop.edu
  University of California Digital Library
  http://www.kcoyle.net        510/987-0567
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