#codeofbestpractices

One week after testifying before the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet during the Hearing on Preservation and Reuse of Copyrighted Works, James G. Neal of Columbia University in New York City submitted supplemental testimony to address questions raised during the hearing and expand on his earlier written statement. The supplemental testimony addresses five issues: collective licensing, contractual restrictions on copyright exceptions, preservation of born-digital materials, the cost of preservation, and community fair use best practices. The Library Copyright Alliance has endorsed the supplemental statement.

Collective Licensing

The supplemental testimony noted that collective rights’ organizations (CROs) often represent problematic models that fail to pay artists and authors the revenues they earned and cautions against relying on such models as solutions, particularly with respect to preservation, mass digitization and orphan works. CROs have had a history of corruption, mismanagement, lack of transparency, among other issues. The statement pointed to two specific examples of problematic behavior of CROs. The first example is that the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) has used fees it collected from research and academic libraries to sue Georgia State University over the use of books written by academics in an e-reserves case. The second example is the Educational Rights Collective Canada that, in fifteen years of operation, has failed to distribute any royalties to authors but is $830,000 in debt.

Contractual Restrictions on Copyright Exceptions

The supplemental testimony expanded on Neal’s oral testimony with respect to ensuring that contractual provisions do not circumvent the exceptions in the Copyright Act. The testimony noted that in licensing electronic resources, publishers often include terms that restrict the fair use right, library exceptions and first sale doctrine. It also pointed out that restricting such contractual provisions exists in numerous areas, both domestically and in foreign jurisdictions. Neal concluded “As part of its review of the Copyright Act, the Subcommittee should assess the adverse impact of the potential replacement of the public law of copyright with the private law of contract, both on libraries and the public at large. I believe that Congress should adopt restrictions on the enforcement of contractual terms that attempt to limit exceptions in the Copyright Act such as first sale, fair use or interlibrary loan under Section 108.”

Preservation of Born-Digital Materials

Neal’s supplemental testimony expanded on his oral testimony regarding the need to preserve born-digital materials. The supplemental statement pointed to studies that reveal that digital materials are also subject to risk of loss, corruption and destruction. It noted also the issue of website archiving and importance of digital preservation in order to address the problem of “link rot” and preserve the cultural heritage expressed through websites. Neal asserted that it is “essential” to rely on fair use to preserve linked references.

Cost of Preservation

Responding to a question from a member of the Judiciary Committee concerning the cost of preservation and access, Neal expanded on creative solutions to address preservation efforts, noting that HathiTrust and the Digital Preservation Network represent cooperative, shared infrastructure models that avoid unnecessary duplication and can reduce overall costs of preservation. The supplemental statement also noted that while it would have taken the University of Michigan 1,000 years to digitize its collection of books, Google’s assistance has allowed it to already largely complete the digitization effort.

Community Fair Use Best Practices

This week is #FairUseWeek at Harvard. You can follow all the action here, including fair use posts by guest bloggers, videos about fair use, and a live panel on Friday. You can also follow twitter.com/fairuseweek for more updates throughout the week.

The post below is cross posted at Copyright at Harvard Library

Harvard’s Fair Use Week is an opportunity to reflect not only on the importance the doctrine has already had in the academic library community, but also to consider its future role in an ever-changing world of new technologies and circumstances. A professional community consensus on fair use with respect to when and how the doctrine is applied can provide powerful guidance, defining community standards and best practices. The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries provides such guidance to a number of areas where fair use applies, including in the digital environment.

Fair use plays a critical role in the copyright system, promoting a balanced system respecting the rights of rightholders while also promoting the public interest and protecting the First Amendment. As a flexible doctrine, fair use can adapt to evolving technologies and new situations that may arise and its long history demonstrates its importance in promoting access to information, future innovation and creativity. Without this flexibility, the law would simply be unable to keep pace with rapid changes and advancements in technology. Within the academic library community, fair use has allowed for better service to patrons in areas of preservation, providing access to information resources, enhancing research, promoting education, among others, particularly where specific limitations and exceptions in the Copyright Law fail to address a particular situation.

The House Judiciary Committee on Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet is currently undergoing a “copyright review” and has already held four hearings, the most recent of which addressed “The Scope of Fair Use.” The hearing examined not only the current scope and practice of fair use, but also looked toward what the future of the doctrine might be, particularly whether any changes were necessary.

During the hearing, Members posed questions that covered a wide range of issues including, among others, how to define “transformative,” whether exporting the doctrine to other countries is appropriate and whether fair use is currently working for all groups. Most comments indicated that fair use is working and statutory changes are not necessary, however some raised questions regarding whether jurisprudence on fair use has been predictable. Best practices developed through community consensus and standards goes to the heart of this issue, promoting predictability for both those relying on fair use as well as for the rightholders.

Members expressed interest in best practices during the hearing. For example, Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Conyers (D-MI) referenced best practices twice during his opening statement. After noting the historic application of the fair use doctrine in a broad range of contexts which has been made possible by the flexibility of the doctrine, Conyers concluded by encouraging development best practices: “Fair use impacts all types of industries including filmmaking, poetry, photography, music, education and journalism. We must continue to encourage these industries to develop best practices.” Similarly, Rep. Lofgren (D-CA) seemed to signal interest in best practices when she asked the Chair of the subcommittee to adopt into the record the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video.

This interest in best practices is not limited to the legislative branch. While courts are guided by the four statutory fair use factors, in practice, they have also looked to the standard practices of the communities from which the case originates in determining whether fair use applies in a given circumstance. Codes of best practices can guide members of those communities in determining whether fair use applies in a particular circumstance and how to exercise this doctrine in a manner considered acceptable in that particular professional community, thereby minimizing risk of litigation.

The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries is therefore an important and useful tool for academic and research libraries making determinations as to what activities are likely to fall under fair use and how to exercise the doctrine. Developed by and for the academic and research library community, the Code identifies eight areas where fair use is commonly exercised and articulates the principles describing each circumstance, a list of considerations to inform these practices, the limitations that are recommended, and enhancements that could strengthen the case for fair use in those situations. These areas include:

Supporting teaching and learning with access to library materials via digital technologies;

Using selections form collection materials to publicize a library’s activities, or to create physical and virtual exhibitions;

Digitizing to preserve at-risk items;

Creating digital collections of archival and special collections materials;

Reproducing materials for use by disabled students, faculty, staff and other appropriate users;

Maintaining the integrity of works deposited in institutional repositories;

Creating databases to facilitate non-consumptive research uses (including search); and

Collecting material posted on the world wide web and making it available.

While some may be hesitant in exercising fair use because of perceived unpredictability, the Code of Best Practices provides reassurances that such activities are considered to be fair use in the community, a factor likely to be looked upon favorably by both Congress and the courts. Such best practices lend predictability to the fair use doctrine, demonstrating a consensus view on the areas where fair use should be exercised and the limitations that should be observed.

Congress need not make statutory changes to a doctrine that has served the public well, providing a crucial “safety valve” in copyright law. Instead, professional communities should continue to develop and rely upon best practices, such as the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, lending greater predictability and certainty to fair use, including in areas of emerging technology.

On Tuesday, January 28, 2014, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet held another hearing on copyright review. This hearing focused on the scope of fair use and included five witnesses: Professor Peter Jaszi (American University); Professor June Besek (Columbia University); Naomi Novik (Author and co-founder of Organization for Transformative Works); David Lowery (Singer/Songwriter and Lecturer, University of Georgia); Kurt Wimmer (General Counsel of the Newspaper Association of America).

Fair use, originally a common law doctrine, is codified under Section 107 of the Copyright Act and permits reproduction and other uses of copyrighted works for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. The statute includes four factors for consideration, including the character of the use, the nature of the work, the amount used in proportion to the whole, and the impact on the market for the work. Failure to meet all four criteria, however, does not bar a finding of fair use. Fair use is flexible and determinations for qualification under this doctrine are made on a case-by-case.

In advance of the hearing, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) submitted a written statement discussing how libraries rely on fair use in order to serve their users and meet their mission; how the federal government relies on fair use for photocopying and in the patent examination process; and how rights-holders rely on fair use in developing new works. The statement concludes that no changes are needed to the fair use doctrine.

Fair Use and Libraries

The LCA statement begins by noting the numerous areas where fair use allows libraries to achieve their missions and serve library patrons, including “the preservation of and providing access to our cultural, historical, local and scientific heritage; supporting and encouraging research, education, literacy and lifelong learning; and providing a venue for community engagement on a host of issues.” The statement recognizes fair use as “the most important limitation on the rights of the copyright owner – the most important ‘safety valve’ of U.S. copyright law for the public.”

Giving a few specific examples, the LCA statement first points to the importance of fair use for mass digitization of works, including for purposes of creating full-text searches, preservation, and providing access to users with disabilities. Libraries also rely on fair use to ensure digital preservation and provide tailored access programs to orphan works, those works where it is difficult or impossible to identify and locate the rightholder. Fair use also permits libraries to improve accessibility for person who are visually impaired or have other disabilities.

The statement also explains that the “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries,” has identified eight situations where the library community has expressed a consensus regarding acceptable practices for fair use in these circumstances:

Supporting teaching and learning with access to library materials via digital technologies; using selections form collection materials to publicize a library’s activities, or to create physical and virtual exhibitions; digitizing to preserve at-risk items; creating digital collections of archival and special collections materials; reproducing materials for use by disabled students, faculty, staff and other appropriate users; maintaining the integrity of works deposited in institutional repositories; creating databases to facilitate non-consumptive research uses (including search); and collecting material posted on the world wide web and making it available.

Fair Use and the U.S. Government

The LCA statement points out that libraries are not the only entities that rely on fair use and federal agencies have relied on this doctrine in the patent examination process and for photocopying materials. A 2012 opinion issued by the general counsel of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) concluded that copying and distribution of non-patent literature for use in providing those copies to applicants during the examination process; providing entire copies of the patent histories to the public; and applicants copying non-patent literature for submission to the USPTO were all covered by fair use. Similarly, a 1999 opinion issued at the request of the Department of Commerce noted that fair use was a critical component in supporting the constitutional rationale of copyright. It found that the public interest could be advanced through the use of government photocopying and was therefore relevant to the fair use inquiry. It cautioned the Department of Commerce and other federal agencies against negotiating license deals to permit photocopying where such photocopying was covered by fair use and therefore not infringing.

Fair Use and Rights-Holders

In addition to libraries and the federal government, content producers and rights-holders also rely on fair use. As noted in the LCA statement, two recent cases where infringement suits were brought against rights-holders, these rights-holders asserted that fair use was critical in promoting the progress of science and protecting the First Amendment.

In Bouchat v. Baltimore Ravens, for example, the Fourth Circuit found that “Fair use . . .is crucial to the exchange of opinions and ideas. It protects filmmakers and documentarians from the inevitable chilling effects of allowing an artist too much control over the dissemination of his or her work for historical purposes.” Furthermore, in its amici brief, film associations noted the importance of fair use in the creation of new content, noting that “Much creative culture is iterative; new works often do not arise in a vacuum, but rather are influenced by and draw upon the creative works that came before. As the Supreme Court held in Campbell, highly transformative works lie at the heart of fair use’s protection: they are the new expression that copyright law is meant to promote.”

Similarly, the LCA statement points to the case White v. West Publishing, where large publishers relied on fair use after creating a database product calling the doctrine a “necessary tool to further the goals of copyright law.”

Conclusion