Library and educational uses

• Author: Robert A. Gorman
• Profession: University of Virginia School of Law
• Pages: 99

Many of the factors that are taken into account in fair use analysis also come into play in the very elaborate provisions of section 108 of the Copyright Act, already summarized on pp. 88-89, relating to photocopying by libraries. There too there is concern for scholarly uses, noncommercial copying, the security of library collections, and the like.

Congress could not delineate a similarly elaborate statutory provision to deal with the much mooted issue of photocopying by educational institutions for classroom use. To resolve that issue, it is necessary to invoke the more general terms of section 107 on a case-by-case basis. The statute makes special mention of "teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use)" as among the uses seemingly preferred by the statutory drafters, and also mentions that the fact that a "use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes" is to be considered in appraising the first-listed statutory factor. NoiA,:theless, the House Report expressly states that the court must consider all of the circumstances involved in an educational-copying case and that section 107 "is not intended to be interpreted as any sort of not-for-profit limitation on educational uses of copyrighted works."161 Certain guidelines for educational copying have been negotiated by representatives of educators and publishers; these purport to state the minimum degree of copying contemplated by fair use (a "safe harbor") and were commented on favorably in the I guidelines and the four factors in section 107 to rlle against classroom copying by a teach one reported case on that subject.163.

Simil making of multiple videotape copies of copy classroom instruction. 164.

When materials are copied for teaching making enterprise, the courts (in the very few very unsympathetic to the defendant's claim Courts have...