Welcome to the Copyright section of our webpage. 

This front page will reflect our most current information on copyright law and related intellectual property law issues affecting educational institutions.

Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for US Libraries, Archives and Museums
by Peter Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon publishsed by Cornell University Library October 2009. Click here for details on how to purchase print copies. This document can also be downloaded by clicking the hyperlink above.

Blackwell Publishing v. Excel Research Group, Case No. 07-12731 (E.D. Michigan US District Court) (Oct. 14, 2009)

In this case Excel was charging students for course packs. A  *master copy* was provided by Excel, and handed to the students who personally made the copies.  The professors at University of Michigan provided Excel with the copy of the required course materials. No copyright permission was obtained from the publishers.  Excel had each student sign a statement the copying was for educational purposes and that he/she was a student in the class. Excel had several defenses. One of those defenses was that the student is doing the copying, not Excel. The court roundly rejected this defense. Excel was found to have engaged in unauthorized distribution of the publishers' work. The fair use defense was also not available to Excel, for several reasons. The use was for profit and commercial, the nature of the work was creative, the amount of use of the work also favored the publishers, and finally the effect of the use upon the market was also found to favor the publishers. In finding Excel's actions violated copyright law the court stated: "Simply put, copyright law should not turn on who presses the start button on a copier."

Educause Copyright Tutorial Resource Page
This is a resource page dedicated to campus copyright tutorials that can be used by schools seeking to meet the HEOA requirements on peer to peer file sharing.

Notification of Agreements Under the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009, 74 Fed. Reg. 40614 (August 12, 2009)

The Copyright Office is publishing four agreements which set rates and terms for the reproduction and performance of sound recordings made by college radio station webcasters under two statutory licenses (Section 112 and 114). This notice sets out the text of the agreements between Sound Exchange and the College Broadcasters Inc. CBI summarized the settlement (which runs through 2016) in their blog as follows:

• Stations that average under 75 simultaneous users will have the option of submitting reports of use that do not require any audience data (ATH of ATP) or paying a $100 proxy fee in lieu of any reporting.
• Stations with an average concurrent audience of over 75 will be required to submit reports of use, but they will not have to submit audience data.
• The fee for these stations remains at $500 annually through 2016 unless the station has an ATH above 159, 140 (~208 average concurrent users in any month).

This is an excellent victory for college webcasting stations. For further details see the CBI webpage update and also the Settlement Agreement.

EDUCAUSE Commentary on Proposed HEOA Regulations Issued For P2P Provisions
Summary of requirements in regulations by Steve Worona, August 25, 2009.