RE: Fair use (RE: electronic journals CCC)

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

Rick, both you and Margaret would be sending only a single article, which
I do not see should greatly bother a publisher. You will not be sending a
complete issue of a journal, which I think a publisher could reasonably
worry about.

There is of course nothing to stop you doing so technically. But if you
were doing it on that kind of scale it would not be that much harder to
cut up a printed issue, feed it through a scanner, and convert it to pdfs
than it would be to do so from an e-journal. I think the publisher would
rightfully object just as much if you did it from the print.


David Goodman, Princeton University
Biology Library				 dgoodman@princeton.edu            
609-258-3235


On Tue, 8 May 2001, Rick Anderson wrote:

> > Show me data to support the assertion that allowing
> > electronic distribution would result in the kind of scenario you describe.
> 
> OK, here's the data: I have a distribution list in my e-mail address book
> that reaches just under 3,000 people.  If this message had an article
> attached to it, I could forward that article to every one of those people
> in a matter of three mouseclicks.  That's considerably less time and
> effort than it would take me to print out that same article and bring it
> home to show my wife.  Tom, in a previous message, points out that someone
> who is out to "cheat the copyright laws" will do so regardless of format,
> and he may be right (though I have a hard time picturing this person
> making and mailing out 3,000 copies).  But I think copyright owners are
> less concerned about willful pirates than they are about people who don't
> understand the difference between fair and unfair use (of which there are
> many) and who will blithely forward an article to an e-mail list or a
> group of colleagues (who will send it to their colleagues and so on)
> without any ill intention.
> 
> Would that scenario justify copyright holders in screaming and running
> around in circles?  No.  Does it justify them in saying "You have to
> fulfill ILL requests using paper copies instead of electronic ones"?  
> Yes, I think so.  When they don't impose such restrictions, I'm a happy
> guy.  When they do, I understand.  Seems like common sense to me.
> 
> -------------
> Rick Anderson
> Electronic Resources/Serials Coordinator
> The University Libraries
> University of Nevada, Reno
> 1664 No. Virginia St.
> Reno, NV  89557
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> rickand@unr.edu