Re: [LM_NET] copyright question

[Daniel Stuhlman <ddstuhlman@EARTHLINK.NET>]

At 12:01 AM 10/05/2009, you wrote:
>Hi Daniel - best to contact both the publisher and the author. In 
>some cases it is actually the publaisher which owns copyright or it 
>is shared by both.
>:)
>BC


I want to make it clear that I am not advocating violating the rights 
of the creator of intellectual property.  I have been the victim of 
theft of intellectual property.  Someone copied one of my web pages 
and did not give me any attribution.  I tried to get them to take 
down the site and was not successful.  I couldn't find the person(s) 
who put up the site that violated my copyright.  If they had just 
asked, I would have been proud to let them spread my good name and words.

With that said, there are certain aspects of the current copyright 
law that make scholarly communication difficult.  Examples are the 
length of copyright.  If a work is out of print and you tried and 
failed to find the copyright owner, you still do not have the right 
reprint the work.  Since owners of copyrights do not have a legal 
requirement to register the copyright, librarians and scholars may 
not even know if a work is still protected.

Title 17 chapter 1 section 106 of the United States Code covers fair 
use. Fair use is explained on this site: 
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html published by the U.S. 
Copyright Office.  On this page it says, "The distinction between 
fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. "

In library catalogs are copies of book cover images.  Each library 
did not get separate permission for each cover. The publishers supply 
some of the images as part of their promotion activities.

I am not a lawyer, judge, legislator or legal scholar.  I just make 
it my business to read the law code and the official interpretations.


(Dr.) Daniel D. Stuhlman
   Reference Librarian
   Wright College Library
   Chicago, IL
   773-481-8420
   dstuhlman at ccc.edu

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