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Re: AAP Position on Copyright and Scanning -- from Willis Ware
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 19:21:29 -0400
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 10:29:24 PDT From: "Willis H. Ware" <Willis_Ware () rand org> -- Folder: YES -- Dave: This scanning and dissem business is a very complicated and intricate discussion; do you want your list into it? There are several points that can be made: 1. Introduction of new technology almost always induces dislocations in traditional ways of doing things, in job availability, in management/union relations, in patterns of cash flow, etc. So long as a transition plan is agreed upon by the interested parties and usually, enough time is allowed for conversion, things seems to work out; e.g., the switch from hardtype to electronic publishing in regard to the union representing linotypers. 2. The publishing industry has been tardy in changing its dissemination modes, its pricing structure, and its traditional attitudes to accommodate the diffusion of electronic methods. 3. The legal community has likewise been exceptionally tardy, if not delinquent, in understanding the issue. My view is that until the lawyers understand the distinction between [1] information and [2] the representation of information, the copyright laws will never do the proper job for the future. When one hears complaints about infringing, it is exactly because the copyright laws protect the representation [e.g., the magazine, the book, the newspaper] and not the information content therein. 4. The bottom line is cash revenue; in a real sense "infringing" equates to loss of revenue. If it were not so, you would hear little complaining about infringement. The problem is not new; a recent similar instance was "how to reimburse musical artists for their creative intellectual property as exemplified by an audio recording -- the so-called residuals issue. 5. The world is going to stumble along making ad hoc arrangements to accommodate old traditions, old positions, old revenue-producing arrangements, etc. until we get copyright laws properly framed AND the publishers of intellectual property understand how to market in the new environment. The shrink-wrap industry, and maybe the CDROM industry, is probably closest in having converted to a contemporary marketing posture. As I said above, it's a complicated business and I'm not sure that I take the AAP position as completely valid. My library is allowed to make a fair-use copy of copyrighted stuff and I could in turn make photocopies for others. BUT the library puts a stamp in the first copy saying that it is copyrighted material, and while this could be removed by white-out or other schemes, at least there is some effort to identify a fair-use copy. It leads one to ponder how to bind such a fair-use label to an electronic copy! Maybe if one could, or would do that, some of the abuse of fair-use doctrine would go away. Willis PS - Just for information. The big data vendors [WestLaw, Dialog, Lexis/Nexis] are in for major dislocations also. Some of them have had sweetheart deals with government agencies to have exclusive access to public records. As these contracts are expiring, folks are objecting to this preemption of access to materials that were paid for by tax revenues. One is seeing it in states [California has been through part of it] and at federal level; e.g., the intent of DOJ to re-establish an arrangement that as existed with Westlaw for many years is being hotly contested.
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- Re: AAP Position on Copyright and Scanning -- from Willis Ware David Farber (Aug 29)