RE: What does Tasini mean for us librarians?

[Guy Dresser <gdresser@allenpress.com>]

A problem for organizations who re-purpose content, such as aggregators
and document delivery companies, is that it's hard to determine whether
the original publisher has gotten the right kind of copyright release, and
impossible to get copyright release from the authors themselves. Ward Shaw
of UnCover managed to keep his sense of humor in regard to their similar
case when he pointed out (I paraphrase) that, for a given article, he is
required to get copyright release from five authors, two of whom are dead,
one is retired to Belize, and the other two hate each other and wouldn't
sign anything the other one agreed to. His version was funnier. Anyway
multiply this dilemma by 17,000 titles at UnCover and it gets fairly
unmanageable or maybe unimaginable. Even though UnCover thought the
publisher had the right to offer the articles for document delivery, the
judge apparently ruled that UnCover was responsible for infringement. That
case probably will also get to the Supreme Court, I've heard.

Guy Dresser

At 06:28 PM 10/25/99 -0400, you wrote:
>My $.02 worth -- It may not have as wide an application as it would seem
>at first read.  Newspaper publishers or trade press publishers who employ
>writers, in most cases have copyright.  Similar to my inventing something
>while employed -- the patent would be property of my employer.  Now, in
>the area of freelancers, this could get to be murkier. I would guess it
>would depend on the contract, and whether full copyright was signed over
>-- as is often the case in STM, or whether only limited license was given.
>
>Patricia Erwin
>erwin.patricia@mayo.edu
>Mayo Medical Library
>Rochester MN 55905
>Phone: 507-284-4952
>FAX: 507-284-2215