RE: Fair use (RE: electronic journals CCC)

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

> Where is the risk for publishers?

For many of them, the risk is minimal -- in fact, I argued in an article a
couple of years ago that the risk of piracy is, in many cases, so low in
terms of both likelihood and of potential damage that many publishers
could probably forego licenses altogether and save themselves a lot of
trouble. (If anyone's interested, the article is called "To License or Not
to License: That Really Ought to Be the Question," and it was published in
_Against the Grain_ v. 11, no. 2, April 1999.)

But for some publishers and some materials, the financial risk of having
articles floating around uncontrolled in cyberspace (which is exactly what
they'd be doing after they left the library in an electronic ILL
transaction) could be significant.  I tend to let the copyright owners
make that determination, since they, not I, would be the ones assuming
whatever risk there is.


-------------
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