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From: perlman@poppy.cis.ohio-state.edu (Gary Perlman)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Illegal For Kinko's To Copy Books Into Packets
Message-ID: <102707@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 2 Apr 91 23:17:30 GMT
References: <1991Mar30.155524.29583@casbah.acns.nwu.edu> <102586@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
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Organization: Computer & Info Sci  Ohio State Univ  Columbus, OH 43210
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In article <102586@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> ogden@seal.cis.ohio-state.edu (William F Ogden) writes:
>Ken Staggers writes:
>
>>From Chicago Tribune 3/30/91
>>
>>A federal judge has ruled that Kinkos Graphics Corp violated copyright
>>laws by copying excerpts from books used in college courses and selling them
>>to students.
>  ...
>
>Wow. Now I wonder if it's legal to copy articles from the Chicago Trib onto
>a network?
>Even worse, what about copying excerpts from illegally copied articles ...
>
>/Bill

Onto a network?  It may be legal.  It depends on other factors.
Copying excerpts from illegally copied articles may be legal if
it is fair use.

I am not a lawyer, so don't take this as advice....

Copyright violations are seldom black-and-white.
"Fair use" cases allow for non-profit educational use of some materials.
A decision about violation depends on
	the nature of the copyrighted work,
	the amount and substantiality of copied work, and
	the effect on market value.
I assume that in the Kinkos case that _Kinkos_ role was not as a
non-profit organization.  In academic cases, if there is no profit,
such as for a professor, then there still might be a violation if
the extent of the copying is so broad that it reduces the value
of a work.  An obvious example would be to take an expensive book
and make complete copies for the class; even if sold at cost by
the professor, a publisher would be likely to claim loss of value
of the copyrighted work.  On the other hand, if a work is not in
print, then it might be difficult to claim lost profits.

So, (parts of) an occasional article on the network might not be
a violation.  It might increase the worth of the larger work by
serving as advertising.  But then, I would not want to be on the
receiving end of a lawsuit, even if I eventually won.

Copying (parts of) illegally copied work may be legal, if it
passes the above criteria.  If the copying party thinks that
the work is in the public domain, then the damages might be
directed to the original infringer.  But here, I am less sure.

--
Name:  Gary Perlman               | Computer and Information Science Department
Email: perlman@cis.ohio-state.edu | Ohio State University, 228 Bolz Hall
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