Dr. Chuanfu Chen: Course Materials
Copyright Issues for Chinese Electronic Resources
Readings
PowerPoint in PDF
Contact the Instructor
Tuesday, July 22
1:30-3:30 p.m
Wednesday, July 23
1:30-3:30 p.m
Class Description
This two-session class will give an overall introduction about Chinese copyright law (analyze some copyright concerns that US libraries have regarding China publications), address some copyright concerns regarding China's publications that US libraries would probably have. It will discuss several approaches to mitigate the IPR problem. The class will (address) focus on:
- major discrepancy between Chinese and U.S. copyright laws, Chinese copyright law and publisher copyright policies related to libraries, ownership of copyright, fair use and infringement of copyright;
- E-resources copyright issues including aggregated databases or e-resources on CD-ROMs from China, "authorized uses," loading stand-alone CD-ROM data or programs purchased (from China on a U.S. library’s local network) by China from a US library’s local network, making backup copies;
- fair use, Inter-Library Loan, and digitization issues including the transfer of contents from printed and electronic resources to other libraries for interlibrary loan purposes, (Chinese publishers or vendors’ analysis) an analysis of Chinese publishers or vendors, digitization of materials held by the libraries in China, making English subtitles for Chinese films for educational purposes;
- library copyright (strategy) strategies and policies including vendors or publisher relations.
This class will also discuss trends of electronic publishing in China.
Class Objectives:
Through course work and assignments, this class will help the attendees:
- have a better understanding of the principles and basis of Chinese copyright law;
- make clear and correct judgments on the copyright risks in using e-content in libraries;
- develop some copyright strategies and policies on e-content uses for the East-Asian libraries, taking all the interests of authors, publishers and vendors, and library users into account.
Class Assignments:
The class attendees will be asked to complete the following assignments:
- to excerpt some provisions directly related to library’s copyright issues from the Chinese or the United States laws (copy or download);
- to collect some cases pertaining to library copyright issues since 1991 (five cases in the States and five cases in China);
- to evaluate the current situation of e-content suppliers in China;
- to develop copyright strategies or policy suggestions on database uses for East Asian libraries with all the interests of authors, publishers and vendors, and library users being protected.
Readings
Please be advised that to use electronic material, you must agree to the following: The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research. If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of fair use that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
Arlene Bielefield and Lawrence Cheeseman. Technology and Copyright Law: A Guidebook for the Library, Research and Teaching Professions. New York: Neal-Schuman publishers, Inc., 1997.
Mary Minow and Tomas A. Lipinski. Library's Legal Answer Book. 2003.
Timothy Lee Wherry. Librarian's Guide to Intellectual Property in the Digital Age Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks. 2002 (This book by intellectual property expert Timothy Wherry is an authoritative, quick reference for the thorny issues of copyright, trademarks, and patents.)
"Colleges, Code, and Copyright: The Impact of Digital Networks and Technological Controls on Copyright and Dissemination of Knowledge in Higher Education, Publications in Librarianship, " no. 57 Center for Intellectual Property and Copyright ACRL (The papers in this volume consider thematic tracks on a wide range of topics, including the intersection of copyright and higher education, the state of scholarly publishing, current copyright legislation, peer-to-peer file sharing, and best practices in digital rights management) 2005.
Yurong Y. Atwill. "E-journals from China: Technical and Collection Issues," The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 31, Number 6, pages 598–604. (Yurong Y. Atwill is Asian Studies Librarian, The Pennsylvania State University).
陈传夫. 馆藏文献数字化的知识产权风险及其对策. 图书情报知识, 2003(5): 2-5, 人大复印报刊资料 G9, 2004(1)转载, 财经政法资讯, 2003(5) 转载
Chuanfu Chen, Kuei Chiu. "Copyright Issues Regarding China Publications Used in U.S. Libraries, "Journal of East Asian Libraries, No. 140, Oct. 2006: 60-68
陈传夫."数字图书馆面临的知识产权风险与对策建议." 数字图书馆—促进知识的有效利用国际研讨会论文集，科学技术文献出版社, 2004, 9
Web Sites:
http://www.librarylaw.com/Copyright_and_Libraries.html
http://www.cilip.org.uk/professionalguidance/copyright
Stanford University Libraries Copyright & Fair Use
United States Copyright Office
The Section 108 Study Group Report, 2008 (PDF)
The Copyright Law and Litigation Resource articles, legislation, cases and resources, a complete site by Robert J. Kasunic, Senior Attorney in the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Copyright Office
Librarians Index to the Internet, Copyright, Intellectual Property Rights, and Licensing
Stanford University. Fairuse.stanford.edu
Hotaling v. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
1997 Fourth Circuit held that an unauthorized microfiche in the Morman Library could constitute infringement when the library placed the work in its collection, included the copy in its catalog or index system, and made the copy available to the public.
American Geophysical v. Texaco 1994 Second Circuit case and documents from Association of Research Libraries. A corporate researcher who made copies of journal articles for his files could be infringing copyright, and should license the articles instead.
Sony v. Universal Studios 1984 U.S. Supreme Court - broader than libraries, but here's the brief by Mary Hutchings and Newton Minow for the American Library Association submitted in 1982.
Williams & Wilkins Co. v. United States, 487 F.2d 1345 , 1973 Ct of Claims, aff'd by an equally divided court, 420 U.S. 376, 95 S.Ct. 1344 (1975) archives of case: Williams and Wilkins v. United States. Williams & Wilkins, a medical publishing house filed suit against the National Library of Medicine (NLM), claiming that NLM was systematically making unauthorized photocopies of periodical articles for scientists and researchers. Although the trial court ruled for the plaintiffs, saying that Libraryís "wholesale copying" met none of the criteria of "fair use," the Court of Claims (in a 4-3 decision) dismissed the claim against the library. It found the copying was "fair use," and emphasized the public interest in free access to medical knowledge, and lack of evidence showing harm to the publishers. On February 25, 1975, the Supreme Court split four-to-four to affirm the Court of Claims decision, without a written opinion. Congress later addressed the issue of library photocopying when it enacted the 1976 Act.
Instructor Information
Dr. Chuanfu Chen
Professor and Dean, School of Information Management
Wuhan University, China
Phone: +86-27-68752135
Email: cfchen@whu.edu.cn or ccf3399@yahoo.com.cn
If you have questions, please feel free to contact us at chinlib@u.washington.edu.
Last modified: Tuesday November 18 2008