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Won’t Get Fooled Again: Day 34
Jim, James, Dan: Dan, you are right, I should have used "fair use" rather than "public use." in my blog entry. Sorry about the confusion. However, my observations still stand. Libraries do not act on behalf of individuals in terms of "fair use." It is up to individuals to be responsible custodians of how they might use library material. Most, if not all, libraries warn their community that there are limitations on ways library material can be distributed or duplicated. And these limitations are often embraced by agreements with vendors. These limitations govern how libraries lend material through interlibrary loan, circulate material to non-primary users outside our communities, reproduce or digitize material for reserve collections in academic libraries, and libraries post clear warnings on photocopiers that certain forms of duplication and redistribution are illegal. The burden for responsible license and copyright use still rests with the individual. It is in this context that I frame my comments about the library's role. And James, I understand the essential link between the legal and economic nature of licensing and/or copyright -- and surprisingly, we both agree libraries abandoned their role and lost an opportunity to recreate a critical public service role in the matrix when their collections began to digitize through a complicated public/private partnerships. And we both agree the future of the FDLP depends on how well we manage this collections/service responsibility. Jim and James -- I think we can all agree that the future of libraries depends on how they deploy the dynamic between collections and services in a digital world. Where reasonable people can disagree, I hope, is the relative importance of one or the other. One faction might argue collections are still paramount; other perspectives may consider collections to be not as important (or differently important) for the future. It is clear the four of us will disagree about where this set point might rest. However, to equate the difference between our two perspectives as a measure of how the opposing perspective advocates the destruction of libraries ... well, I do not think we need to go there. My observations, speculations, and rhetoric does not advocate destruction. They are supposed encourage debate, reflection, and exhortation to action. Judging from your thoughtful responses, this goal is being achieved. I am going to step back from this rhetorical point and get back to commenting on the future possibilities of government information in our libraries. I am sure we will join forces again over these considerations, but I think all of our perspectives have been underscored enough for the moment. See you on Day 35. Continue reading
Won’t Get Fooled Again: Day 32
All right, all right. Readers won't let me get away with the single comment in the last blog entry I had about the article in the New York Review of Books -- and I think this feeds into the long-standing conversation I have been having with J A Jacobs. Simply put: I do not think libraries, as institutions, have any role in claiming a "public use" provision within the infrastructure of copyright. In other words, print and paper technology gave libraries a "gap" between those who owned the information and those who want to use it. While library circulation did not threaten the sale of the same material through the private market, information producers were quite comfortable in letting the libraries enjoy the "free ride" of offering their information products without any compensation for the free use. It was good public relations and a "feel good" partnership. The mass digitization of the information changed that relationship. I really think what the google technology does, and what the research libraries agreed to when they chose to work with google four years ago to find an "economical" way to digitize their collections, is create a private market version of "public lending right." See you on Day 33. Continue reading
Lunchtime Listen: Interview with Emily Sheketoff
Library Perspective. Interview with Emily Sheketoff, Executive Director of the Washington Office of the American Library Association, CSPAN, 11/06/2008. [30 minutes, Flash Video]. Sheketoff discusses federal copyright, privacy, and piracy policy and how those issues could be effected by President-Elect Barack Obama’s administration. Paul Sweeting, editor of Content Agenda was the guest host. Continue reading
change.gov changes its copyright statement, gets it *almost* right
We've been following the Obama transition team's change.gov site for a few weeks now and were dismayed that the change.gov site had been copyrighted -- remember, government documents, including Web sites in the .gov domain, are in the public domain according to copyright law. I was just alerted by a tweet from John Wonderlich, that change.gov has changed their copyright statement to a Creative Commons attribution license -- meaning visitors are 1) free to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work; and 2) to Remix/adapt the work as long as they "attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor." That CC license is "approved for free cultural works." While I applaud the change to a creative commons license as a step in the right direction, I still believe that change.gov -- and all .gov sites -- need to be explicitly in the public domain (which as you remember is a statutory requirement According to Copyright Law 17 U.S.C. § 105). If site administrators wanted the geek street cred that comes with creative commons, why didn't they choose the creative commons public domain dedication? This is an open government issue; the public domain is critical to open and transparent government operations. If the Obama administration is serious about ethics and open government, then they will change their copyright statement on change.gov and donate the site's information to the public domain. Is that so much to ask? If you agree, please contact the change.gov administrator(s) and politely but strongly urge them to support the public domain. I just did. --that is all. Continue reading
Publishers who claim copyright to government publications
Bonnie Klein of the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) has pointed out a problem of publishers making a false claim of copyright to works of the U.S. Government. Using Google Books, she discovered that one entrepreneur "has assigned ISBNs and lists his company as Publisher of government documents" harvested from the DTIC. She identifies the publishers Storming Media, Diane Publishing, and Penny Hill Press as republishers of government information.
- Google Book Search & Resellers of GovWorks by Bonnie Klein, posting to liblicense-l, Mon, 3 Nov 2008 18:30:25 EST
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