ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C& RL N ew s ■ F e b ru a ry  2001 / 211

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e Lynne E. Bradley

@ you r library co p yrigh t
In the new 107th Congress, we expect data­
base legislation to again be high on the 
agenda. Regulatory proceedings will continue, 
primarily through the Copyright Office at the 
Library  of Congress. And ALA is heavily in­
volved with copyright-related litigation, no­
tably the Tasini v. New York Times and DVD 
cases. (See the ALA Web site for further in­
formation at http://w w w .ala.org/w ashoff/ 
property.html.)

“How have copyright laws changed over 
the last few years, and how does this impact 
the work of libraries?” The answer is short 
and disturbing: Copyright laws have changed 
dramatically, and the social role of libraries 
is threatened because of these recent changes.

For example, recent amendments to copy­
right law passed by Congress, including the 
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and 
the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension 
Act, favor the interests of copyright holders 
over the interests of the public. The DMCA 
allows copyright holders to use technologi­
cal means to prevent access to a copyrighted 
work.

Copyright holders and copyright permis­
sion services are developing mechanisms to 
exact payment for fair uses. Technological 
protection devices can measure and track use 
of digital copyrighted materials so users can 
be charged for all unauthorized uses, even 
those unauthorized uses that are lawful, like 
fair use. This means that libraries and library 
users can be charged for printing a fair use 
copy of a journal article, or copyright even a 
paragraph from a copyrighted work.

Permission services like the Copyright 
Clearance Center are actively pursuing librar­
ies and asking that they pay an annual li­
cense fee to cover unauthorized copyright of 
copyrighted materials, primarily from jour­
nal publications, even though the libraries 
have lawfully purchased the materials and 
have paid a high institutional journal sub­
scription price.

Lynne E. Bradley is Office of Government Relations director 
of ALA's Washington Office; e-mail: leb@alawash.org

Now more than ever, academic librarians 
must remain informed and involved—ready 
to be active in grassroots advocacy to pre­
serve fair use and work on the multitude of 
other policy issues that impact library users 
and library services.

The current trends in copyright law are 
not good for our nation’s libraries, but there 
are steps that academic librarians can take to 
reverse these trends:

Stay inform ed. Participate in the copy­
right educational opportunities ALA offers. 
This spring, ALA will launch its first distance 
education course on copyright via the Web. 
The ALA Office for Information Technology 
Policy (OITP) will continue to offer e-mail 
tutorials on copyright, UCITA, and other 
to p ic s  o n  its c o p y r ig h t W eb s ite  at 
http://copyright.ala.org.

2. Get involved. Write to your congres­
sional representatives to voice your concerns. 
Use the Washington Office Legislative Action 
Center (http://congress.nw .dc.us/ala/) for 
help in writing letters and contacting the ap­
propriate Congressional decision-makers. Stay 
in touch with the ALA Office of Government 
Relations (OGR) and attend National Library 
Legislative Day (April 30 and May 1, 2001).

3. Most important: Embrace your role 
as a librarian. Now more than ever our soci­
ety needs librarians to focus on the public 
interest. Demand that users of digital infor­
mation have the same rights as users of print 
information and that all of our citizens have 
equal access to information.

We n eed  more academic librarians in­
volved in these battles if we are to keep rights, 
such as fair use, for our library users and our 
institutions. There are other issues, such as 
the reauthorization of the Library Services and 
Technology Act (LSTA) and a legislative pro­
posal from the National Commission on Li­
braries and Information Science (NCLIS), re­
lated to the dissemination of government in­
formation that also impact academic librar­
ies. Watch for more on these issues in future 
columns.— Carrie Russell, Copyright Special­
ist, ALA Washington Office in the Office fo r  
Inform ation Technology Policy ■

http://www.ala.org/washoff/
mailto:leb@alawash.org
http://congress.nw.dc.us/ala/