On Fri, 23 Jul 1999, Matthew Wright <matwright[_at_]ubmail.ubalt.edu> wrote:
>
> The University of Baltimore Law Library offers an Inter Library Loan
> service to a private law firm in the Baltimore area. The ILL service
> uses scanning technology to post the requested documents on a secret
> law library web page. This prevents the need for faxing. The web
> page is not password protected but there is no link to it from the
> library's home page.
>
> This is how the service works. The law library has a private URL to
> receive the ILL requests. The URL is not linked to any page on the
> library's web page. The URL is privately given out to a particular
> local law firm. Once the library receives the ILL request, the library
> retrieves the necessary items, scans the items and posts them to the
> private URL. The law firm can then go to that web page and print out
> a scanned version of the document. The documents stay up no more than
> four days.
There is no such thing as a "private URL" unless you are operating an intranet. You have described an orphaned URL -- one that may not be attached to another page, yet is still publicly accessible to anyone looking hard enough. Or, more likely, to anyTHING. The bots and spiders employed by Internet search engines will certainly find this page. And any number of individuals knowing this URL may view/download the article (virtual infinite copies?).
> We have been told that this service may be in violation of the copyright
> law. We would like to know whether subscribers think it is illegal and
> why. We are wondering why this would be any different than merely
> faxing the law firm photocopies of documents. We also wonder whether it
> is relevant that thus far, only one law firm in Baltimore knows the URL.
> The library has contemplated expanding the service by offering it to
> other firms.
It sure looks dangerous to this librarian. Whether or not anyone *finds* this page, it's still publicly accessible, and we all know what view publishers will take of public accessibility.
You didn't say the number of articles or circumstances under which you fill requests, or what fees you may be paying to rights holders.
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