RE: Slagging Over Sagging CD Sales

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

> Publishers are acting to make their publications available
> to posterity. Is there any evidence that they are preventing fair use?

You bet, or at least many of them are trying to.  Almost every license
agreement I negotiate includes language that restricts the end-user's
behavior to a greater degree than fair use would allow.  And Chuck, along
with many others, is right in pointing out that the music industry is
working hard to impose restrictions on music buyers that go well beyond
those defined by fair use.  The question is to what degree that's
appopriate.  That's a serious question, one that we librarians can
probably help to answer if we're willing to get serious.  Getting serious
does not, I submit, consist in indulging in the kind of adolescent
info-utopian rah-rah that we read in LJ every month.  Nor does it mean
putting scare quotes around the concept of intellectual property and then
acting as if we've formulated an actual argument.  Our profession is
marginalized in this conversation already, and the problems are being
solved by others.  I think that's really unfortunate.

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno        "When you think Phil, you
1664 No. Virginia St.              think hip-hop."
Reno, NV  89557                       -- Phil Donahue
PH  (775) 784-6500 x273
FX  (775) 784-1328
rickand@unr.edu