A posting on Dave Farber's "Interesting Persons" list of an article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education indicates that trouble is brewing between publishers and university libraries. Snippets:
Publishers are objecting to an electronic reserve system at the
University of California in which libraries scan portions of books and
journals and make them available free online to students.
In recent months, lawyers for the Association of American Publishers
have sent letters to the university that object to the use of
electronic reserves on the San Diego campus. The publishers say that
the use of electronic reserves is too extensive, violating the "fair
use" doctrine of copyright law and depriving them of sales.University officials counter that the electronic reserves at San
Diego are well within the bounds of fair use. They worry that the
letters portend a lawsuit."They clearly had a lawsuit in mind when they started contacting our
office," said Mary MacDonald, a lawyer for the university system.
"Their position was that the 'evidence' showed that we weren't
following fair-use guidelines, that this was a national issue, and
that the set of facts gave them a good platform from which to take
legal action."Ms. MacDonald said she sent a "comprehensive response" to the
association in February, laying out how the university's electronic
reserves respected fair use. She said she had not heard from the
publishers since then.Allan R. Adler, vice president for legal and governmental affairs at
the publishing group, said the university's responses "haven't been
very satisfactory."
