November 20, 2006
Publishers Question Professors' Grasp of Copyright Law
The publishing industry says professors who post extensive excerpts of protected books online must have flunked basic copyright law. The practice costs publishers $20-million a year nationwide, they say, according to an article by Bloomberg News. Some professors, however, argue that they are trying to help students avoid paying $100 for a textbook, especially for one they will barely use. --Dan Carnevale
Posted on Monday November 20, 2006 | Permalink |Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Pot, meet keetle.
See Jason Mazzone, “Copyfraud,” Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 40, August 21, 2005
Abstract:
Copyfraud is everywhere. False copyright notices appear on modern reprints of Shakespeare’s plays, Beethoven’s piano scores, greeting card versions of Monet’s Water Lilies, and even the U.S. Constitution. Archives claim blanket copyright in everything in their collections. Vendors of microfilmed versions of historical newspapers assert copyright ownership. These false copyright claims, which are often accompanied by threatened litigation for reproducing a work without the owner’s permission, result in users seeking licenses and paying fees to reproduce works that are free for everyone to use.
Copyright law itself creates strong incentives for copyfraud. The Copyright Act provides for no civil penalty for falsely claiming ownership of public domain materials. There is also no remedy under the Act for individuals who wrongly refrain from legal copying or who make payment for permission to copy something they are in fact entitled to use for free. While falsely claiming copyright is technically a criminal offense under the Act, prosecutions are extremely rare. These circumstances have produced fraud on an untold scale, with millions of works in the public domain deemed copyrighted, and countless dollars paid out every year in licensing fees to make copies that could be made for free. Copyfraud stifles valid forms of reproduction and undermines free speech.
Congress should amend the Copyright Act to allow private parties to bring civil causes of action for false copyright claims. Courts should extend the availability of the copyright misuse defense to prevent copyright owners from enforcing an otherwise valid copyright if they have engaged in past copyfraud. In addition, Congress should further protect the public domain by creating a national registry listing public domain works and a symbol to designate those works. Failing a congressional response, there may exist remedies under state law and through the efforts of private parties to achieve these ends.
— Ross Scaife Nov 20, 05:24 PM #
While copyright law certainly deserves attention, it is the unnecessary practice of revising textbooks every 2-3 years that needs critical evaluation. As far as I can tell in my domains of expertise, the “new” knowledge incoporated into revisions hardly justifies the cost. Where knoweldge is changing that quickly, textbook writers are often grossly out of date making primary articles far more vaulable. A good textbook, even if several years old, suplpemented by recent articles makes sense, not a “new” and “revised” text.
Here’s a challenge to college faculty: let’s write “freeware” texts that would be part of the public domain.
Any takers?
— Rich Lewine Nov 21, 01:08 PM #
Of course, the copyright law should not be breached but here is another thought. I don’t need to do a study to see that Publishing companies have cost universities and academics millions by over-charging publishing costs.
Freeware texts? How about freeware journals? We recently launched Herpetological Conservation and Biology and it has been pretty darn successful. There are no page charges and not download fees. The total outlay for publishing is around $150/year. The average cost for page charges for one journal article.
— MLM Nov 21, 02:05 PM #
Congratulations! We need more of this.
Rich
— Rich Lewine Nov 21, 04:02 PM #
There are already several efforts at creating public domain and copyleft textbooks. The Assayer (http://theassayer.org/) is one site that is attempting to catalog some of these efforts. Take a look and see if there are any resources listed in your area. If not add listing to any that you know of.
— JC Nov 22, 08:57 AM #