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Publishers Suing Georgia State University Regarding
Electronic Publications Placed on their Website as
Electronic Reserve Readings
April 17th, 2008
Georgia State sued over electronic course packs
Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 2:33 am
ZDNet
Categories: Education Technology
Tags: Student, Material, Internet, Christopher Dawson
<http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1632>
The New York Times is reporting that three publishers are suing Georgia
State University in what appears to be the first suit of its kind. The
publishers allege that electronic compilations of scanned materials posted
on the school website for distribution to students violates fair use and
requires licensing.
Fair use, in copyright terms, allows educators to reproduce and use
portions of copyrighted materials for instructional purposes. A set of
guidelines can be found here, but essentially, giving students a handout
of a few important pages is fine; copying the book (or several chapters)
is not. More importantly, if students no longer need to buy the book (if
they would have been likely to buy it in the first place), then this also
represents a violation of fair use.
----------------------------------------
April 16, 2008 11:11 AM PDT
Publishers sue university over publication of class reading materials
Posted by Dawn Kawamoto
CNET News
<http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920388-7.html>
A group of academic publishers filed a lawsuit against Georgia State
University officials on Tuesday, alleging a systematic abuse of
copyrighted works in the online distribution of coursework reading
materials.
Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Sage Publications
allege the university "facilitated, enabled, encouraged, and induced"
professors to upload the copyrighted materials to its online system for
students to download, without first obtaining the necessary permissions or
paying licensing fees.
The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Georgia, may mark the first
time publishers have challenged universities over the electronic
distribution of written copyrighted works, noted the plaintiffs' attorney.
"Our clients believe this is a widespread problem," said Bruce Rich, an
attorney with Weil, Gotshal & Manges, who is representing the plaintiffs.
The problem first cropped up a couple years ago, noted Patricia Schroeder,
head of the Association of American Publishers, of which the plaintiffs
are members.
"A couple years ago, we noted a drop-off in universities seeking copyright
permission as they shifted to the digital world," Schroeder said. "Even
though technology changes, the law doesn't."
The publishers allege Georgia State University permitted its professors to
reproduce vast amounts of copyrighted materials and combine them into
course packets for students.
----------------------------------------
Textbook publishers sue GSU for copyright infringement
By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/16/08
Atlanta Journal Constitution
<http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/
stories/2008/04/16/gsusuit_0417.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
DeAnna Hines, a GSU spokeswoman, said Wednesday the university was aware
of the lawsuit but had yet to receive it. She declined to comment on the
publishers' claims, citing the ongoing litigation.
New York attorney R. Bruce Rich, who represents the publishers, said other
universities, when notified, have worked out license agreements with
publishers over the use of copyrighted materials.
"They have managed to respect copyright principles, make customary
payments for permissions and still enable the educational process to go
forward without disruption," Rich said.
The publishers made repeated attempts to reach an amicable resolution,
without the need for litigation. But all such efforts have been "flatly
rebuffed by Georgia State," the suit said.
"With the university's encouragement, hundreds of professors employed by
Georgia State have compiled thousands of copyrighted works, made them
available for electronic distribution and invited students to download,
view and print such materials without permission from the copyright
owners," the lawsuit said.
----------------------------------------
Publishers Sue Georgia State on Digital Reading Matter
By KATIE HAFNER
Published: April 16, 2008
New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/technology/16school.html>
The lawsuit, which may be the first of its kind, raises questions about
digital rights, which are confronting many media companies, but also about
core issues like the future of the business model for academic publishers.
Indeed, as the printed word is put in digital form, holding onto rights
seems to many like climbing up the slippery sides of a glass. The case
centers on so-called course packs, compilations of reading materials from
various books and journals. The lawsuit contends that in many cases,
professors are providing students with multiple chapters of a given work,
in violation of the "fair use" provision of copyright law. The publishers
are seeking an order that the defendants secure permissions and pay
licensing fees to the copyright owners.
Officials at Georgia State, in Atlanta, declined to comment on the
lawsuit. We have been informed that a lawsuit is being filed, a
spokeswoman, DeAnna Hines, said. However, we have not received it, and
therefore we wont be able to comment, pending potential litigation.
Over the years, electronic course packs have become increasingly common,
supplanting their physical counterparts. They consist of reading material
taken from a variety of printed sources, which is then scanned, compiled
and posted on a universitys Web site. By some estimates, electronic course
packs now constitute half of all syllabus reading at American colleges and
universities.
----------------------------------------
Publishers Sue Georgia State University Over E-Reserves
Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 4/16/2008
First lawsuit over electronic course content
No comment yet from university
Suit claims 6700 words distributed
Library Journal
<http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6552021.html>
The suit offers a remarkably detailed view of what the plaintiffs believe
to be infringing activity at GSU, including specific examples of uses it
considers to be well beyond the scope of fair use and a detailed appendix
of alleged infringed materials. The suit charges that, as of February 19,
2008, GSUs e-reserve system contained over 6700 total works available for
some 600-plus courses, made them available for electronic distribution,
and invited students to download, view, and print such materials without
permission of the copyright holder.
Notablyand probably not by accidenttwo of the three plaintiffs listed in
the suit are non-profit university presses.
<snip>
Pfund said he was especially troubled by GSUs refusal to discuss what he
considers the universitys overreaching fair use claim regarding its
e-reserve content.
----------------------------------------
Fair use on campus: publishers sue school over class reading
By John Timmer | Published: April 16, 2008 - 11:35AM CT
ARS Technica
<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080416-fair-use-
on-campus-publishers-sue-school-over-class-reading.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
The Times article points out that cases that defined fair use of classroom
material date back to the early '90s, where the means of infringement was
the photocopier. Back then, private entities that prepared material for
university courses were found to have infringed the copyright of
publishers in duplicating their material. A key feature of these cases,
however, is that the infringers were private businesses that charged for
their copying services; many universities are not-for-profit entities.
The ease of creating and distributing digital media has also radically
changed the role not only of universities, but nearly everyone involved in
the process of distributing classroom materials. Instead of farming out
the creation of "course pack" material to a business, most campuses now
provide server space for the material and leave it up to their faculty to
decide what gets uploaded. Many faculty simply assume that any material
used in teaching constitutes fair use.
Those faculty that take copyright issues seriously have to evaluate
materials through a process that can be intimidating. One set of
guidelines we found came in at 3,500 wordsand that was only to determine
whether faculty needed to read additional material. Other schools have a
more orderly process for identifying and paying for copyrighted material,
but still may not be able to police everything distributed by their
faculty.
----------------------------------------
Fair Use: A Double-Edged Sword
Sanford G. Thatcher
Journal of Scholarly Publishing
<http://www.utpjournals.com/jsp/thatcher.html>
Exploring the definition of fair use as a facet of copyright law in the
United States, Sanford Thatcher examines the inherent tension caused by
this legal notion in scholarly publishing, particularly in the new
electronic era. Libraries, and, by extension, universities, increasingly
advocate a stronger assertion of fair use in higher education to cope with
diminishing funds.University presses, in contrast, view broader
definitions of fair use as a threat to the already decreasing market
potential for scholarly monographs, despite recognizing that their
interests are closer to the aims of higher education than they are to the
aims of commercial publishers.
As an example of this double-edged sword, Thatcher discusses photocopying
and electronic journals and their economic and legal effects on
publishers. Without due consideration of university presses and their
mandate to publish scholarly research, aggressive fair use will constrain
those publishers and adversely affect the careers of the authors fair use
is designed to assist.
----------------------------------------
Although I first learned of this law case through an electronic alert, I
have been seeing posts regarding this issue on the LibLicense discussion
group that has a number of posts already on file regarding this topic.
LibLicense
<http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/index.shtml>
LibLicense Archives
<http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/>
Start Here
<http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0804/maillist.html>
Thread Title
E-reserves lawsuit in NYTimes (Georgia State University)
----------------------------------------
The complete articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.
WEBBIB0708
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@temple.edu
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