Re: Journal archives and Finally hitting the core question

[David Goodman <dgoodman@princeton.edu>]

1. UNFAIR USE

In print it was harder, but people did it anyway. And not just students
for their own personal use, but commercial as well. And not just
commercial, but officially or quasi-officially by some nations that did
not then recognize copyright. Not just the copying but the distribution
seems to me inordinately expensive for the benefits, but apparently those
involved thought it worthwhile.

And not just journals. Around 1960, some of my friends used to buy
otherwise expensive math books, copied and printed in slightly reduced
format on thin paper, produced in some Asian country and shipped in
through a 3rd country. One had to pay in advance, with a money order made
out to another individual, even though only 1 in 2 shipments came through,
and the books were sometimes warped from sea-water damage.

2. FAIR USE

But, Rick to follow up your other message on:  Finally hitting the core
question

>Then where is the coherent argument for allowing people to
>circumvent those restrictions?

The restrictions affect fair use also.

They also affect even paid use. Remember that when one has paid for
access, one is entitled to get it. To say that having paid for access, if
it doesn't work, you cannot hack it to get it to work, is not coherent.
Examples:  contracts not prohibiting off-campus use via a proxy server, or
use on a Unix machine, but where the publisher's technology deliberately
or accidentally prevents it.

Copyright is acceptable because it is balanced by a/the desirability of
encouraging authorship b/lasts for a limited time and c/permits fair use.
The first two are in the Constitution, the third only in the statute. The
third is necessary because the ability to exchange portions of the
material is much of the value. I, personally, do not generally buy
electronic resources whose data cannot be printed, emailed, and stored,
because my patrons wouldn't be able to make their necessary use of it.

> -------------
> Rick Anderson
> rickand@unr.edu

-- 
David Goodman
Research Librarian and
Biological Science Bibliographer
Princeton University Library
Princeton, NJ 08544-0001
phone: 609-258-7785
fax: 609-258-2627
e-mail: dgoodman@princeton.edu