roundtable: HOLD OFF ON COPYRIGHT REFORM (from EDUPAGE)

roundtable: HOLD OFF ON COPYRIGHT REFORM (from EDUPAGE)

HOLD OFF ON COPYRIGHT REFORM (from EDUPAGE)

W. Curtiss Priest (BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu)
Wed, 19 Apr 95 08:28:08 EDT 

Message-Id: <9504191238.AA23599@a.cni.org>
Date:         Wed, 19 Apr 95 08:28:08 EDT
From: "W. Curtiss Priest" <BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject:      HOLD OFF ON COPYRIGHT REFORM (from EDUPAGE)
To: Telecommunications Policy Roundtable <ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG>


CITS Observation:
We are in agreement with the author of this article that the 1976 Act
provides sufficient coverage for copyright concerns until we better
understand the digital world.

We are, however, concerned about the 1976's implicit copyrighting
at the momement of fixation (whenever someone sets something in fixed
form, such as bits on a disk drive).  This requires that anyone wishing
to repost messages from one list to another on the Internet must either
contact the author for permission or invoke their rights under Fair Use.

***************************************************************************
HOLD OFF ON COPYRIGHT REFORM
With technology advancing at warp speed, leaving the legal profession in
the dust, re-writing copyright law at this point might be premature says
Ann Okerson, senior program officer at the Association of Research
Libraries. "There's enough wiggle room in the current copyright law that it
can serve us reasonably well for a while longer... It's dangerous to tamper
with the right to information."  (NetGuide, April '95 p.76)
===========================================================

COPYRIGHT CLEARANCE CENTER ON THE WEB
The Copyright Clearance Center, which serves as a clearinghouse for
permission to reprint copyrighted materials, has set up business on the
Web, offering browsers an automated process for obtaining and paying for
reprint rights.  The URL is <http://www.directory.net/copyright>.
Customers can asked to be billed or pay by credit card using Open Market
Inc.'s encrypted software.  By July the Center hopes to offer an automated
Academic Permission Service for obtaining the rights to "course packs" --
anthologies that professors custom-design for their classes.  (Chronicle of
Higher Education 4/21/95 A32)

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