I am giving a short presentation, to a group of law students that are taking a copyright class. The topic of the talk is about copyright and libraries. I try to focus on how intellectual property law can be used to promote the diffusion of knowledge instead of merely restricting it.
I was hoping to share some viewpoints on copyright and libraries that were not my own. If you have any feedback to the questions below or want to mention something you think is a major issue in regards to libraries and intellectual property law I would love to hear your comments.
1) Do you have any personal examples of how copyright law is preventing you from helping your patrons?
2) Do you feel that copyright law needs to be changed in regards to libraries? If so, how?
3) As a librarian what do you think the major issues are in regards to copyright and libraries?
Please do not be limited to these questions if you have any comments in regards to copyright and libraries please share them.
Thanks in advance for considering these questions.
Interesting questions
I’ve done some thinking about this subject. I’m currently going through a doctoral program, and my main research question is: how does copyright law affect the missions and practices of cultural institutions, including libraries, archives and museums? I’ve had the opportunity to talk to different groups of librarians- mainly school and academic, a few at special libraries, and so on. Answers differ amongst groups- for example, K-12 librarians have different day-to-day issues to consider than college librarians. I’ll make some generalizations about some responses.
-In many institutions, librarians get copyright questions from their users.
-Copyright law is too vague. This mainly applies to fair use, which was designed by legal experts for legal experts. It’s so vague that they often have to rely on guidelines. Some think the guidelines are the law, which can often lead them to wrong conclusions about what is and isn’t acceptable. And librarians try to teach the concept to a variety of users, including elementary school students. It’s not easy stuff.
-Copyright law is too complex. This is especially true with Section 108, the libraries and archives exemption.
-Copyright law is too out of date. Even the parts that refer to digital materials don’t seem to take into account things that were created and meant to be distributed digitally.
-Many believe that you have to have access to a lawyer to be really comfortable taking certain actions.
Here’s one example of how copyright can affect libraries and patron services. At one academic library, the digitization group would not digitize things that they cannot determine the copyright of, even if faculty thought they needed it digitized for preservation or teaching purposes. This was partly a case of scarce resources- with multiple projects requested, if access could be an issue, wouldn’t it be better to digitize something that they know can be accessed by as many people as possible?
The first thing we do…
1) Do you have any personal examples of how copyright law is preventing you from helping your patrons?
That would be pretty much any time a user is confused as to why the e-journal site they are trying to access is asking them for a password — or they’re otherwise attempting to locate an article but failing. In most cases it’s because we don’t subscribe to the electronic edition of that journal for the time period they’re interested in.
If these titles were Open Access they wouldn’t have this problem. So, not really a copyright impediment per se, but evidence to me that, for the first time in history, the biggest impediment to the librarian’s mission of providing access to information is no longer technology, but capitalism and its derivatives (in this case, copyright enforcement).
2) Do you feel that copyright law needs to be changed in regards to libraries? If so, how?
As a whole, the phrase “securing for limited times” could certainly be redressed.
3) As a librarian what do you think the major issues are in regards to copyright and libraries?
Electronic Reserve and Orphan Works are two topics that come to mind.
HTH
re: Copyright Issues for Librarians
1) Out of print works often cause problems–they aren’t necessarily orphaned, but we often can’t get a hold of them, for reserves, ILL, or purchase.
I’ve had media people tell me that they prefer videotape to DVD when faculty want video clips for online classes. They are worried about “circumventing copyright protections” on DVD’s, while trying to provide the same ability for a professor to show a video clip in an online class as they would in an on ground class. The TEACH Act has helped a little, but the provisions are still restrictive (on top of the usual confusion over fair use.)
2) I would like to see a provision for educational and library use of out of print and orphan works. Being able to put an entire (or large portions of an) out of print work on electronic reserve would make teaching, especially online, much easier. Making it clearer what we can do when there is no available version for purchase would really help.
There are a lot of multimedia issues in online classes that need work, such as: A faculty member in an on ground class can put a video on reserve in the library for students to watch outside of class. There is no equivalent provision for online classes.
3) I would say the major issues affecting libraries would be copyright extensions and orphan works.
copyright in libraries
My copyright question for this week is how videos/dvds may be used in the library. I understand the rules about having the professor present, the movie being shown in a classroom setting, and the movie being part the instructional content of the course. I can’t find anything in the law that says a library room can’t be used as a classroom.
Searching other academic sites for information is bewildering. Some say videos cannot be shown in the library; others say not in library screening rooms.
The law does not seem to mention advertising the movie, charging admission, only letting students enrolled in the class be allowed into the movie; the TEACH act does address some of these.
Harvard’s site says dorm rooms are considered to be private areas, like homes, but does this include common rooms like dorm lounges? Mt. Holyoke seems to allow just about anything.
Does anyone have any real information? We don’t do distance learning so the TEACH act isn’t relevant.
Re:copyright in libraries
You’re going to get different answers from different institutions. It’s not a black and white thing, so it’s going to depend on the specifics of your situation and how risk averse you or your counsel is. I’m not entirely clear on what you’re trying to do, though. You might want to try posting on librarycopyright.net (which I participate in, as well as others) and see what they have to say. The more info you provide about your situation, the better. ^_^