College and Research Libraries


.. 

sion on Libraries and Information Science 
(NCLIS). In addition, a stimulating and 
provocative after-dinner talk on the subject 
"Intellectual Property and Intellectual 
Freedom" was given by Robert O'Neill, 
vice-president of Indiana University and 
senior official of the Bloomington campus. 

The format consisted of formal presenta-
tions by each speaker, discussion and inter-
change among presenters, and interaction 
with members of the audience. The volume 
faithfully records all, which makes for in-
teresting reading, if not always explicit clar-
ification by presenters of questions raised by 
conference attendees. Without doubt, the 
proceedings make a worthwhile contribution 
to an understanding of the ~arious and 
diverse conflicting viewpoints and, equally 
important, point 'to the continuing difficul-
ties in resolving them. 

Having attended the conference, I was 
pleasantly surprised to find a reading of the 
proceedings to ·be as timely now as in April 
of 1977, with many of the unanswered ques-
tions still unanswered, and most of the 
adherents to a specific point of view still 
adhering, tenaciously. Of particular interest 
to librarians are the comments of the repre-
sentatives of library interests, which are 
solid and well articulated. This volume is 
one of the better efforts in the plethora of 
publications purporting to explicate this 
complex subject.-Nancy H . Marshall, Uni-
versity of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Seltzer, Leon E. Exemptions and Fair Use 
in Copyright: The Exclusive Rights Ten-
sions in the 1976 Copyright Act. Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1978. 
199p. $17.50. LC 77-13676. ISBN 0-674-
27335-4. 
The contents of this book first appeared 

in the April and June 1977 issues of the Bul-
letin of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. 
Seltzer's work is a major contribution to the 
copyright literature, and the publication of 
the text, with the addition of appropriate 
appendixes, in hardbound book form is wel-
come. 

As director of Stanford University Press 
and a member of the California bar, Selt-
zer's perspective on copyright is one deserv-
ing of attention from academic librarians. 
Seltzer is concerned not with the heated 

Recent Publications I 81 

and narrow arguments among librarians, 
publishers, and authors that have sur-
rounded the emergence of the Copyright 
Act of 1976, but rather with analyzing the 
constitutional and theoretical foundations of 
copyright and with formulating an intellec-
tually sound framework for "the continuing 
public policy debate on the proper limits of 
copyright protection." 

Although the Constitution gives Congress 
the power to grant an author the "exclusive 
right" to the use of his or her work, the 
purpose of that right is to benefit society, 
and the right, which is intended to function 
as an economic incentive, is modified by 
two restrictions . One is that of exemptions 
from copyright control made by Congress to 
accommodate competing interests. The 
other is the reading public's implied right to 
use copyrighted materials in certain ways 
without permission, a right that has come to 
be known as "fair use." 

It is' the tensions generated by this 
scheme that are the focus of Seltzer's book. 
Seltzer examines the possible impact of the 
1976 Copyright Act on the workings of 
copyright in the U.S., especially on the 
areas of exempted use and fair use, and 
concludes that the new law does nothing to 
resolve the old problems in these areas and 
has furthermore introduced troublesome 
new problems. 

The first chapter is a lucid, solid, grace-
fully written presentation of the meaning of 
the constitutional copyright clause. Seltzer 
includes a particularly helpful diagrammatic 
portrayal of the different concepts involved 
in the copyright scheme, their economic po-
sition, and how they overlap. Later sections 
of the book thoughtfully and knowledgeably 
examine the library photocopying question, 
in the context of the concepts Seltzer has 
developed. 

Seltzer's cogent, original thinking and 
careful writing shed light in an area suffused 
mostly by heat in the past few years. 
Exemptions and Fair Use in Copyright is 
strongly recommended for academic librar-
ies and librarians. Although readers unfamil-
iar with legal concepts and terminology may 
find parts of this volume somewhat difficult 
reading, it is well worth the intellectual 
effort.-Madeleine Cohen Oakley, Cornell 
University, Ithaca, New York.