[ccccip] Publishers sue university over publication of classreading materials

Thu Apr 17 14:12:17 EDT 2008

Nick,

      I still suggest that a "one size fits all" pay scale is inappropriate
for educational uses of scholarly works, especially for what Steven Harnad
calls the "author give-away work" of peer-reviewed journals articles.
Rather than moving toward a found-revenue-stream model of production, it
would be much more useful for scholarly journals to be moving to a
value-added revenue stream.  Such a model could have publishers promoting or
producing professional reviews of bodies of literature, networks of articles
that prove indispensible for users or other such services.  The actual
copying of a given article from a journal or a small sub-set of articles
from an overall course should neither be subject to costs nor be understood
as anything other than fair use.  It is interesting that we never see
publishers citing the first bits of language in section 107:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A [17 USCS Sects. 106,
106A], the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by
reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by
that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or
research, is not an infringement of copyright.

To be clear, I realize that publishers need to make money.  I just think
that the money-making mechanisms need reconsideration.  

      BTW, the "spontaneity" clause you mention below is not part of the
actual copyright law.  It is part of the CONTU guidelines that have neither
force of law nor uniform acceptance.  Those guidelines are rarely cited in
case law because they represent an incomplete and fraught set of guidelines
that never reached consensus.  

Cheers,

jrg

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at ccccip.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at ccccip.org] On
Behalf Of Nick Carbone
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:29 PM
To: CCCC IP Caucus
Subject: Re: [ccccip] Publishers sue university over publication of
classreading materials

Apparently at one point access to the library's e-reserves was public.

So it went beyond the university. It's also interesting that it's not

just about linking to an article in a database, but about making digital

copies -- profs extracting the article from a database putting copies in

other places.

I've done campus workshops from campus servers and have demonstrated how

you can, since you're enrolled in the campus, search for something in

say JSTOR and find it's URL and paste that URL into a WebCT or some

other campus based course space and very often the link will open the

article for any student in the course because the student is logged into

the campus learning space and linking to the campus library and there's

a handshake going on.

But what they're claiming seems to exceed that kind of use. 

The NYTimes says the issue is digital course packs: "They consist of

reading material taken from a variety of printed sources, which is then

scanned, compiled and posted on a university's Web site."

So it's using e-technology to end-run print course pack law that some

how came to the attention of the publishers in question. As I recall,

one of the standards on fair use was that the use be spontaneous; course

packs by definition -- planned collections arranged and assigned --

aren't spontaneous. 

That said, a smarter model, especially for a U. Press that might want to

cultivate readers of U. Press material, would be to lower the permission

costs: "Frank Smith, editorial director for academic books at Cambridge

University Press, said that for electronic use in a course, Cambridge

typically charges 17 cents a page for each student, and generally grants

permission for use of as much as 20 percent of a book."

So a thirty page excerpt from Cambridge would be $5.10 per student. Then

you add in other pages from other books, and a course pack gets really

expensive very fast. 

Why not a nickel a page, a $1.50 for the 30 pages? That's closer to an

iTunes model. And you can get an affordable course pack. The idea that

content has to be free because it's digital doesn't make sense, but the

craziness of charging so much that you induce people to avoid paying you

doesn't make sense either. Would Cambridge rather have a 100 people

paying a $1.50 or 2 people paying $5.10 and 98 others getting it for

free on the sly?

Nick Carbone, Director of New Media

Bedford/St. Martin's

617 275 1872

ncarbone at bedfordstmartins dot com

-----Original Message-----

From: discuss-bounces at ccccip.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at ccccip.org] On

Behalf Of Charlie Lowe

Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:17 PM

To: CCCC IP Caucus

Subject: Re: [ccccip] Publishers sue university over publication of

class reading materials

The Cnet news piece I posted seems to be quoting the plaintiffs when it

says,

"facilitated, enabled, encouraged, and induced"

NYT coverage which also seems to be quoting the plaintiffs writes,

"systematic, widespread and unauthorized copying and distribution of a

vast amount of copyrighted works"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/technology/16school.html?_r=1&ref=tech

nology&oref=slogin

What I wonder is how would the publishers know this is true unless

Georgia State as an institution is actively encouraging it and even

publicly so (maybe there is evidence on their website?). What's being

used with individual courses would be unknown to the publishers unless

they enrolled in the course. Somehow, the university must be providing

evidence for the case.

BTW: Like others, I'm not surprised that this has happened. I've been

expecting it ever since the copyright clearance module for Blackboard

was released:

http://www.copyright.com/ccc/viewPage.do?pageCode=i14

Charlie

Jim Porter wrote:

> I wonder why Georgia State? Was the alleged infringement more 

> egregious there than elsewhere? (That seems unlikely.)

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