Copyright Permission: Get It...Or Get Yours

WHEN ACCEPTING documents for printing over the network, how responsible are you for your customers’ copyright infringements? As the “button pusher” you are responsible for what you duplicate. In view of the prevalence of network printing, it would benefit in-plants to know their liability.

Since 2004, no less that six U.S. copy shops have been accused of unauthorized reproduction and distribution of copyrighted materials.

The Price of Noncompliance

• Two years ago in Austin, Texas, Abel’s Copies, Speedway Copying and NetPaks (one of the first cases to involve digital transmission of course materials) settled out of court with six major academic publishers. The owner of these three businesses agreed to an undisclosed monetary settlement and to “adopt compliant business practices” according to a Copyright Clearance Center press release.

• In October 2005, Cann Copy & Printing and Tan Tien Publications were both sued in San Jose, Calif., by six publishers who hope to stop the two businesses from further infringement and to demand royalty payments for unauthorized uses of their materials.

• In November 2005 two separate actions were filed in Massachusetts. Gnomon Copy has allegedly reproduced copyrighted materials repeatedly without authorization for use by Northeastern University students. In the case of CopyCat Printing in Springfield, the publishers claim that this shop only obtained partial permissions for reproducing course materials for use at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. (For those of you who are “making an effort” to obtain permissions, this should give you a chill.)

• In February 2006, Custom Copies of Gainesville, Fla., was sued for the second time. Although the owner, Kenneth Roberts, has paid royalties to publishers and to Copyright Clearance Center on a regular basis since 2000, he is being sued once again for photocopying and selling course packs containing copyrighted materials without asking for permission or paying royalties. In this case, 20 separate violations are cited from Spring 2003 to present. In the 2003 settlement, Custom Copies paid an undisclosed amount and agreed to report photocopy usage and pay royalty payments through the Copyright Clearance Center. Considering the outcome of the 2003 suit, one would think that the company would not be taking any chances. Instead, with a price tag of up to $150,000 per violation, it could now be facing a $3 million dollar penalty.

Good Advice

When you look at that first copy for a quality control check, also check for large amounts of previously published materials, including professional photos and graphs and charts from newspapers. Although some small uses would qualify for a fair use defense, multiple chapters from the same book will probably not. All previously published materials will need to be attributed. That’s the difference between fair use and plagiarism—fair use always has a citation. Take a look at the Fair Use Checklist (copyright.iupui.edu/checklist.htm) and use it often to make your own determinations.

When you have determined that the proposed use is not a fair one, use the Copyright Clearance Center Web site to start the permissions process. The CCC is a not-for-profit organization established in 1976 to facilitate legal uses of copyrighted materials for educational and commercial purposes. What began as the Transactional Reporting Service (TRS) for business and educational uses of journal articles has expanded into several other useful online tools, including Academic Permissions Service (APS), Electronic Course Content Service (ECCS) and a program for republication in a commercial venture. It is no longer an insurmountable task to request a permission grant from a publisher (orphan works notwithstanding).

Why are you, the in-plant, liable? Going all the way back to the Kinko’s case in 1991, copy shop owners are responsible for knowing copyright law and for instructing staff in its application. The as-yet-unsettled cases from 2005 and 2006 mentioned here will likely end in settlements similar to the Texas case in 2004, described above. Ignorance of the law is irrelevant to your liability.IPG

Rosemary Chase is University Copyright Officer at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Va. You can contact her at:

rchase@gmu.edu

Copyright Resources on the Web

George Mason University Libraries Copyright Office: library.gmu.edu/copyright

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, Copyright Management Center: copyright.iupui.edu

University of Texas, Crash Course in Copyright: www.utsystem.edu/ogc/ intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm

North Carolina State University Libraries, The TEACH [Act] Toolkit: www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/legislative/teachkit/overview.html

Stanford University, Fair Use Site: fairuse.stanford.edu

University of Maryland University College, Center for Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment: www.umuc.edu/cip

University of Minnesota, Copyright Information & Education Initiative: www.lib.umn.edu/copyright

Articles on Internet and multimedia copyright issues: ivanhoffman.com

Ten Big Myths about Copyright: www.templetons.com/brad/ copymyths.html

Library of Congress Copyright Office: lcweb.loc.gov/copyright

Public Domain Chart: www.unc.edu/
Eunclng/ public-d.htm

Creative Commons Licenses: creativecommons.org

Electronic Frontier Foundation: www.eff.org

Copyright Clearance Center: www.copyright.com