For immediate release:
November 21, 2008

For more information, contact:
Kaylyn Groves
Association of Research Libraries
kaylyn@arl.org

NASULGC President Calls for New Focus on IP and Copyright Policy in Latest ARL Bimonthly Report

Issue Also Features Harry Potter Fair Use Case and Call for Special Collections Directory

Washington DC—Intellectual property and copyright, as well as access to special collections, are highlighted in the current issue of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Bimonthly Report, no. 260.

In the lead article, Peter McPherson, President of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), identifies intellectual property law as a major factor in how universities are able to conduct their mission and cites examples of how recent law revisions, court decisions, and discoveries have come together to impose barriers to faculty and researcher access to critical resources. He notes that the growing imbalance in IP and copyright law and court decisions hinders the constitutional purpose of copyright “to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts.” McPherson calls for the academic community to find a way to agree upon and advance a common set of positions in Washington DC that would regain within the law a balance between the needs of the creators of IP and the needs of society, which benefits from the early and wide availability of knowledge. He proposes “an adequately funded structure to advance this agenda in Washington and across the country.”

Also on IP and copyright issues, Jonathan Band, JD, weighs in with "How Fair Use Prevailed in the Harry Potter Case." Band contends that, despite US District Court Judge Robert Patterson’s September 8 ruling that the print version of Steven Vander Ark’s Harry Potter Lexicon infringed J. K. Rowling’s copyright, “the big winner actually was fair use.” Band draws three broad lessons from Judge Patterson’s decision. First, fair use is alive and well—expression can be incorporated into transformative works, as long as the expression is reasonably necessary for achieving the transformative purpose. Second, the courts champion fair use, in contrast to historic and recent proposed legislation that continues to encroach on fair use and the public domain. Third, fair use is best defended when those being sued have the resources to take on plaintiffs with deep pockets backed by big industry.

Jeffrey Makala, Assistant Special Collections Librarian, University of South Carolina, makes the case for "A New, Open Access, Online Directory of Special Collections." Makala notes "a significant and surprising gap in our contemporary information environment...there is no current, freely available directory of major research collections or academic and research library subject strengths in North America." Inspired by ARL's Celebrating Research book and Web site, he proposes that the research library community create a collaborative online tool to fill this need.

Alice Prochaska, University Librarian, Yale University, responds to Jeffrey Makala's proposal for an online directory of special collections with strong support. Prochaska provides the example of the British National Register of Archives as a potential model for a North American directory. She also notes that the ARL Special Collections Working Group will consider adding Makala's proposal to the recommendations included in their report, which is expected to be released in early 2009.

This issue of the Bimonthly Report is in the mail to ARL member libraries and subscribers this week.

The issue is also freely available on the Web at http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br260.shtml.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.