Fair use (RE: electronic journals CCC)

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> As for E vs print.  If it is our duty, as we believe, to provide services
> then our contention is that it should make no difference whether the
> source material is in print or E - fair use, contu, etc. should apply.

Legally, of course, that's still true -- the law doesn't delineate one set
of fair use guidelines for a print publication and another for an
electronic one.  But let's get real here.  The fact is that an electronic
copy poses much more of a threat to copyright integrity than a print copy
does.  It would take a tremendous amount of work to distribute a paper
copy in any kind of wide and systematic way.  Give me an electronic copy,
though, and I can send it to thousands of people with a couple of
mouseclicks.  That's why publishers are, I believe, justified in imposing
license terms that specifically restrict that sort of distribution.  
Frankly, I'm not convinced that copyright law in itself ever offered very
much protection to copyright holders -- it was the ungainliness of print
formats that really kept things in check.  Publishers are not dumb to be
concerned about the possibilities for broad illegal distribution in the
electronic realm.

-------------
Rick Anderson
Electronic Resources/Serials Coordinator
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno
1664 No. Virginia St.
Reno, NV  89557
PH  (775) 784-6500 x273
FX  (775) 784-1328
rickand@unr.edu

"A revolution involves a change in structure;
a change in style is not a revolution."
        -- Karl Marx