A different sort of campus copyright fight

Publishers concerned as more professors put readings online

	New York University student Ellen Lichtenstein looks at a board displaying books published by some of her professors at NYU's School of Communications in New York. Online reserves have changed her study patterns, she says.
Kathy Willens / AP

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updated 6:15 p.m. ET May 21, 2005

NEW YORK - There's been a change in Ellen Lichtenstein's study patterns.

For half her classes this past year, she no longer had to visit a library to get the reading materials professors had placed on reserve. Instead, she only needed Internet access and a password.

"It's as simple as logging into my e-mail account, clicking on a few links and printing it," said Lichtenstein, 21, a New York University communications senior from Birmingham, Ala. "There's no going to the library, waiting on line, waiting to Xerox it, there's none of that."

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And publishing companies are worried precisely because of that ease and convenience _ it's another way for publishers to lose sales.

The Association of American Publishers already has contacted one school, the University of California, San Diego, claiming "blatantly infringing use is being made of numerous books, journals and other copyrighted works."

Allan Adler, the group's vice president for legal and government affairs, said he was investigating other universities, which he would not name. He suspected the practice might be widespread on campuses nationwide, but said publishers could never know because such items are generally on password-protected sites.

U.S. copyright law offers greater leeway for noncommercial uses like education, but such "fair use" exemptions are not automatic. Rather, courts ultimately must apply a four-part test that balances, among other things, the amount copied and its effect on potential sales. A password can help but does not guarantee an exemption.

Libraries have largely been permitted to make a limited number of copies available through reserve systems, in which students borrow a book or a binder of photocopied articles for a few hours at a time. Students can make copies for themselves under fair use.

But when FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Services tried to extend that premise and packaged collections of articles, book chapters and other items as "course packs" in two New York stores, publishers sued the FedEx Corp. unit and prevailed. Kinko's was told to pay $2 million to eight publishers in that 1991 case.

Many librarians and professors see electronic postings as akin to library reserves, but publishers see them more as course packs subject to permission and royalty.

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