Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

Will Fair Use Survive?, a project of the Free Expression Policy Project, discusses how digital copyright control impinges upon free expression and fair use.  The three points they make in the introduction sum up the report nicely:

• Artists, writers, historians, and filmmakers are burdened by a "clearance culture" that ignores fair use and forces them to seek permission (which may be denied) and pay high license fees in order to use even small amounts of copyrighted or trademarked material.
• The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the DMCA) is being used by copyright owners to pressure Internet service providers to take down material from their servers on the mere assertion that it is infringing, with no legal judgment and no consideration of fair use.
• An analysis of 320 letters on the Chilling Effects website, an online repository of threatening cease and desist and "take down" letters, showed that nearly 50% of the letters had the potential to stifle protected speech.

So, how do libraries fit into all of this?  How much do our library staff know about digital fair use (or fair use period)?  About what our patrons can and can’t do with the digital information in our licensed databases, eBooks collections, and more?  Probably not enough.  Perhaps this is a topic to bring up at your next staff meeting.

found on ebyblog