Re: IP industry control of use

[David Goodman <dgoodman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>]

You are of course right, Sally, that in this field, where authors' direct
financial interests are usually not involved, the interests of the author
and the publisher need not clash. It very much should be possible for
people of good will to find standard contracts that satisfy both parties,
and I agree we are all increasingly doing so.

But fair use is also an important right to preserve. It provides a
recourse against unreasonable demands, it provides even a little pressure
to arrive at a just contract instead to leaving things open to dubious
interpretation, and it provides the level playing ground needed for
compromise. Without it, the recent discussions would have been much more
rancorous, all parties would be much more defensive, and we would have all
stopped talking to each other long ago.


David Goodman
Research Librarian and
Biological Sciences Bibliographer
Princeton University Library
dgoodman@princeton.edu            609-258-7785

On Sun, 28 Apr 2002, Sally Morris wrote:

> ...  A very large number of publishers are actively
> incorporating in their licences the right to do all the things permitted
> by fair dealing/fair use, whether or not they are unambigous in current
> law, and often more besides - see, for example, the PA/JISC and John Cox
> model licences for electronic journals.  This is a far more practical
> solution than allowing anyone (whether they have authorised access or not)
> to 'hack' a published product in order to carry out an allegedly fair use
> act.
>
> Sally Morris, Secretary-General
> Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers