Re: Another Angle Regarding Vendors Holding Libraries Responsible for UserViolations of Intellectual Property Law

[David Goodman <dgoodman@Princeton.EDU>]

Closed stacks, non-circulating collections, and supervised reading rooms
will take care of the problems for printed material. Auditing all
library's computer user logs and scanning their hard disks on a regular
basis will take care of it for electronic. Libraries have long had the
right to do the first--and have long done so for rare book and manuscript
collections. Apparently universities have the right to do the second for
the computers they own, and students need merely be required to grant
permission for the use of the security software on their private machines
as a condition of enrollment (it could be a click-on button in the
electronic application for admission). The only remaining problem is
bookstores. I think they'd have to be confined to selling pre-approved
material, printed so as to disintegrate after one reading.

For additional security, private ownership of copy machines could be made
illegal, and a chip placed in every computer printer preventing the
printing of more than one copy of an item. It might even be possible to
check ownership before printing, analogously to the way certain software
checks that two copies of the same license number are not simultaneously
connected to the network.

"David P. Dillard" wrote:

> Until recently, I could not see what all the concern was regarding
> libraries assuming full responsibility for copyright infringement by their
> clients of the materials the library purchased.  After all, it would not
> cost that much to have a full time security guard trained specially in
> intellectual property law beside every copy machine in every library for
> all hours the library is open.  They could also hire a crack force of home
> investigators who would visit library customer homes to make certain that
> library materials were not involved in client violation of intellectual
> property law in their homes.  Library clients would welcome such
> enforcement measures for a cause as noble as the protection of the
> intellectual property protections of publishers even if it comes at the
> expense of their legal privacy and other rights.
> 
> Well I just have come across a message from some time ago on the eBook
> Community discussion group which has a public archive that puts even more
> holes in this Swiss cheese, despite the fact that this message was not
> written for this purpose.  Some of you may have discovered this or figured
> it out independently of the message that I am sharing, but for those who
> haven't, here goes.
> 
> Text can be "photocopied" from a book, periodical, or even a computer
> screen with a digital camera, according to this message.  Hence as digital
> cameras become more sophisticated, less costly and widely available, and I
> believe that they are well on their way in this direction, anyone in any
> corner of any library will be able to photographically photocopy with a
> digital camera any publications owned by the library physically or
> electronically, if the content of this message is correct.  Just think how
> many more intellectual property law trained security guards that a library
> will need to hire to make sure that nobody perpetrates an intellectual
> property crime anywhere in the building.  Clients, of course, could all be
> frisked, when entering the building to make certain that they are not
> carrying a digital camera, and clients again will be delighted to
> cooperate with whatever measures it takes to enforce intellectual property
> laws.