Copyright


"... it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity..." Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

"The Library's copyright committee is developing up-to-date guidelines in an effort to assist students and faculty to be responsible citizens in the world of publications, art and music." Miriam Deutch, Associate Librarian for Research & Access Services
  • The Issue
    On January 31, 2001, Chief Librarian Barbra Higginbotham appointed a Copyright Committee consisting of Mariana Regalado, Beth Evans (chair), Sylvie Richards, and Susan Vaughn. At their request, she added Judith Wild (charged with exploring e-reserves) and Miriam Deutch (supervisor of print reserves) to the group and charged them with developing a statement about the Library's position on copyright and course-specific collections, one geared toward faculty. The statement is to cover reserves, both print and electronic, as well as material intended for specific groups of users (students enrolled in a course supported by a Blackboard site, for example). The objective is to protect the College, while putting the smallest burden possible on the faculty and the Library staff. The College's office of legal affairs is consulting.

    Why a Copyright Committee? Copyright has become one of the day's hottest academic issues. With the ability to transmit documents electronically via the Internet, publishers in all avenues of the information industry perceive a threat to their markets as never before, and with good reason.

    Until now, the biggest threat to the publishers of printed information was the photocopy machine. This tool enabled material to be reproduced, but at a certain point it became more cost effective to buy the original than to keep churning out new out copies. However, the Internet is not only a producer but a mass distributor, potentially depriving publishers and creators of the opportunity to sell their works to multiple readers. The result? A new attitude on the part of lawmakers, successfully lobbied by powerful interests in the publishing industry. Recently enacted laws erode "fair use," a concept that is the cornerstone of the way libraries do business. Libraries and their clienteles benefit most from a balance between protecting the rights of the creator and those of the would-be user.

  • The Committee
    "This has been a dream team." Judith Wild, Associate Librarian for Technical Services and member of the Copyright Committee
    Professor Beth Evans, the committee chair, quickly immersed herself in the seminal documents in the field of copyright. Her strong leadership shepherded the group through many thorny and complex issues. Professor Mariana Regalado's technical expertise enabled her to maintain the committee's Web site http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/library/copyright/copyright.htm and her close contacts with faculty informed the discussion with the client's concerns. Dr. Sylvie Richards' Blackboard expertise brought additional important issues into the conversation. Professor Susan Vaughn's experience with the vendors of electronic packages and her role as Chair of the CUNY Electronic Resources Advisory Committee enabled her to make clear the relevance of licensing agreements to copyright compliance.

    In her role as the next head of Reserves, Professor Miriam Deutch brought a much needed practical, real-world approach to the discourse. Professor Anthony Cucchiara contributed his considerable experience in copyright compliance for archival materials, and Professor Judith Wild focused on how institutions with electronic reserves systems already in place are interpreting copyright compliance. (Professor Wild is also the Cabinet member to whom the copyright committee reports.) Howard Spivak and Nicholas Irons, while not serving on the committee, have enriched the debate with their technical expertise.

  • The Plan
    "The average length of the [31] meetings was two hours, and a few went for three hours and longer. Recently, to make a big effort to finish the @#$!% document, the group met for shorter periods, but twice a week." Judith Wild, Associate Librarian for Technical Services
    From the minutes of its first meeting, the goal of the group is "to write a Library statement on our position regarding copyright and Course-Specific Collections (CSC) that is geared toward faculty. This would be a statement to cover reserve, both printed and electronic and material included for a specified group of users (students enrolled in a course with Blackboard support). We want to protect the College while putting the least burden on the faculty and the Library staff."

    To meet that goal, incredibly and as of this writing the committee has met 31 times! A good number of these meetings were dedicated to considering our choices for an electronic reserves system.

    Why is this work so painstaking? Copyright issues are difficult because so much is new. And, the committee is dealing with legal issues, although its members are not lawyers. Another factor is that the copyright law is not static. The ground continues to shift, especially in the areas of multimedia and online learning. Examining the copyright statute as well as the policies, statements, and practices of other institutions consumes a great deal of time.

    Brooklyn's document will cover e-reserves, Blackboard users, and copyright issues of concern to faculty. The members of the Copyright Committee see themselves as the copyright educators for the entire college community. To this end, they attended workshops and meetings to learn more from expert thinking:
    February 8, 2001: "Control, conflict and Courseware: Intellectual Property in Online Education" http://www.pbs.org/als/programs/fio10103.htm

    March 2, 2001: Teleconference on UCITA (Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act) http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita/index.html

    April 26, 2001: "Demystifying Copyright" (Carrie Russell of ALA's Office of Information Technology Policy http://www.ala.org/oitp/copyr/index.html; sponsored by the Brooklyn College Library & Office of Academic Information Technology)

    June 16, 2001: "I Want My MP3: Sharing and Ownership in the Digital Future" (American Library Association annual meeting, San Francisco CA)

    September 24, 2001: "Intellectual Property and Multimedia in the Digital Age. (National Institute for a Networked Cultural Heritage and the New York Public Library)
    Today our policy for print materials is all but finished, and the group is moving on to craft policy related to audio and video. In light of the number of course sites faculty have built and are building, the group's work remains very important. When the policy is complete, we will publicize it broadly with faculty using the Web for teaching.