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Fair Use

Research Library Issues, no. 273 (Dec. 2010)

RLI issue 273 includes:

  • Three Key Public Policies for Research Libraries: Net Neutrality, Fair Use, Open and Public Access
  • The Importance of Net Neutrality to Research Libraries in the Digital Age
  • Challenges in Employing Fair Use in Academic and Research Libraries
  • Public Access to Federally Funded Research: Contributions to Economic Development, Competitiveness, and Innovation
 
 

Research Library Issues, no. 270 (June 2010)

RLI issue 270 includes:

  • Celebrating 10 Years of ARL’s Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce
  • ETDs and Graduate Education: Programs and Prospects
  • Urban Copyright Legends
  • Open Access Week: Library Strategies for Advancing Change
 
       

Fair Use Challenges in Academic and Research Libraries

This report summarizes research into the current application of fair use to meet the missions of U.S. academic and research libraries. Sixty-five librarians were interviewed confidentially by telephone for around one hour each. They were asked about their employment of fair use in five key areas of practice: support for teaching and learning, support for scholarship, preservation, exhibition and public outreach, and serving disabled communities.

pdf arl_csm_fairusereport.pdf

 
 

Letter to Tracey L. Armstrong re: Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) underwriting litigation (Nov. 11, 2010)

Letter expressing ARL's disappointment with the decision by the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to underwrite 50% of the plaintiffs' costs in the litigation by three publishers against Georgia State University.

pdf lt-ccc-gsu-11nov12.pdf

 
 

GSU Fair Use Order

This is a copyright infringement case brought against various officials of the University System of Georgia, including officials of Georgia State University. Plaintiffs are three publishing houses who claim that Defendants are responsible for infringement of their copyrighted works. They complain of Georgia State's practice of allowing professors and other instructors to utilize electronic systems to reproduce and distribute excerpts from copyrighted works for academic use by Georgia State students, without paying copyright fees to them. Plaintiffs seek injunctive and declaratory relief.

pdf gsu-fairuse-order-30sept10.pdf

 
 

Research Library Issues, no. 266 (Oct. 2009)

RLI issue 266 includes:

  • Removing All Restrictions Cornell’s New Policy on Use of Public Domain Reproductions
  • Evolving Preservation Roles and Responsibilities of Research Libraries
  • SPARC Explores Income Models for Supporting Open-Access Journals
  • ARL Salary Survey Highlights
 
   

Membership Meeting 1998 (Fall): The Digital Millennium: What Does It All Mean?

Proceedings of the 133rd ARL Membership Meeting, "Confronting the Challenges of the Digital Era," October 1998.

pdf mm98fall-lutzker.pdf

 
   

Detailed Responses to Section 108 Working Group Questions

The Section 108 Study Group released a Background Paper and requested comments on issues relating to library and archival exceptions under Section 108. The library community provided written and oral statements to the Study Group. Based on the additional input from the library community, the responses in this document provide greater detail and in some instances, clarify the earlier statements filed in conjunction with the March Roundtables and the request for comment by the Study Group.

pdf section108-working-group-2006.pdf

 
         

ARL, Center for Social Media, PIJIP to Prepare Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries

Announcement that of ARL's joint project with the Center for Social Media at American University, and the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property in American University's Washington College of Law, to prepare a code of best practices in fair use for academic and research libraries.

pdf fair-use-code-1pager.pdf

 
 

Balanced Copyright Preserves the Right to Innovate

Statement from ARL and other associations arguing that, while copyright promotes creativity, many of the specific measures adopted or recently proposed to protect copyright in the digital age actually impede innovative technologies and services.

pdf balanced-copyright-statement.pdf

 
 

Campus Copyright Rights and Responsibilities: A Basic Guide to Policy Considerations

This document, prepared by the Association of American Publishers, the Association of American Universities, the Association of American University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries, is intended to present a basic explanation of copyright law with an emphasis on its application to colleges and universities.

pdf campus-copyright-dec05.pdf

 
 

Fair Use in the U.S. Economy: Economic Contribution of Industries Relying on Fair Use [executive summary]

While policymakers pay much attention to copyrights, exceptions to copyright protection also promote innovation and are a major catalyst of U.S. economic growth. Specific exceptions to copyright protection under U.S. and international law, generally classified under the broad heading of Fair Use, are vital to many industries and stimulate growth across the economy.

pdf ccia-fair-use-study-exec-2006.pdf

 
 

Fair Use in the U.S. Economy: Economic Contribution of Industries Relying on Fair Use

Summary findings of a study conducted to quantify the economic contribution of fair use to the US economy.

ppt ccia-fair-use-study-slides.ppt

 
   

Educational Fair Use Today

Three recent appellate decisions concerning fair use should give educators and librarians greater confidence and guidance for asserting this important privilege. In all three decisions, the courts permitted extensive copying and display in the commercial context because the uses involved repurposing and recontextualization. The reasoning of these opinions could have far-reaching implications in the educational environment.

pdf band-edu-fair-use-today-dec07.pdf

 
 

The Law of Fair Use and the Illusion of Fair-Use Guidelines

Several "official" and formal guidelines that attempt to define the scope of fair use for specific applications—notably for education, research, and library services—have emerged in the years since passage of the Copyright Act of 1976. Although some interested parties and some governmental agencies have welcomed these guidelines, none of them ever has had the force of law. This article analyzes the origins of guidelines, the various governmental documents and court rulings that reference the guidelines, and the substantive content of the guidelines themselves to demonstrate that in fact the guidelines bear little relationship, if any, to the law of fair use.

pdf fair-use-code-crews.pdf

 
   

Letter to Representatives re: H.R. 1201, The FAIR USE Act (Mar. 21, 2007)

Letter from the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) strongly supporting the introduction of the Freedom And Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship (FAIR USE) Act of 2007, H.R. 1201.

pdf ltr_fairuse-cosponsor-hr-21mar07.pdf

 
 

Fair Use in Digital Environments: The Work of the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU)

Paper disucssing fair use in digital environments, and particularly about the work of the Conference on Fair Use (or CONFU) to work out guidelines for "fair use" in educational and library settings now that digital, networked communication and publishing is becoming common. Presented at The National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services in Philadelphia, PA on February 27, 1996.

pdf fairuse-confu-27feb96.pdf

 
 

Letter to Deborah Platt Majoras re: In the Matter of Consumer Fair Use and Related Rights (Aug. 1, 2007)

Letter from library associations in support of the the request for investigation and complaint for injunctive relief filed by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) in the matter of Consumer Fair Use and Related Rights.

pdf ftc_complaint_01aug07.pdf

 
 

How Fair Use Prevailed in the Harry Potter Case

In a highly publicized decision issued on September 8, 2008, US District Court Judge Robert Patterson ruled that Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon infringed J.K. Rowling's copyright. Although J. K. Rowling prevailed in the litigation, the big winner actually was fair use.

pdf band-harry-potter-29sept08.pdf

 
 
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