Would it not have been better to include rights holders, distributors
and non university
paid copyright lawyers in both the initial discussion and in any
online webinars discussions etc?
When only one side develops guidelines and frankly has direct
access to the library community ( I love videolib but it only reaches
a small fraction of librarians), rights holders get deeply concerned.
Clearly the issue of most concern is the apparent claim that there are
situations in which fair use would be used to stream complete works
it would be a huge relief if
you would clarify this issue very specifically. If we have indeed
overreacted than we would be most happy to told we are dead wrong and
the code do not in fact say that CITIZEN KANE or a documentary from
California Newsreel, First Run etc. could be streamed in their
entirety for a class. The reason there is so much distrust from rights
holders is that we have in fact encountered a number of schools that
are indeed streaming whole works routinely in classes so please,
please clarify this issue and don't say it depends on the
circumstances, give any examples of the above that you believe are
covered by fair use/
On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 2:18 PM, Patricia Aufderheide
pauf...@american.edu wrote:
Thank you to all the correspondents! And we all really appreciate the
good faith attempt to work from information. Here is Brandon's reply
(and I'll post the FAQ as soon as possible):
Jonathan, et al.,
Thanks for that intervention. I look forward to working on an FAQ that
can be a start at what Gary kindly calls for, light not heat. I
certainly didn't mean to create straw men, and I think it is actually
quite helpful to be clear that the discussion here is not about fair
use simpliciter, but about fair use *as the Code articulates it.*
So let me rephrase that: There is concern that if librarians exercise
their fair use rights *as librarians have articulated them in the Code
of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries,*
their highly-valued relationships with film producers and distributors
will be put in jeopardy. What I would like to address is the concern
that the vision of fair use articulated in the librarians' Code is
inconsistent with this relationship, because I do not think it is.
It's clear that people on this list can and do debate the proper scope
of the fair use rights of libraries, and I'm sure that's a fruitful
and interesting discussion. My concern, however, is much more
pedestrian. I want to be sure that people with an interest in
libraries' use of video understand what the libraries' Code really
says on that subject. Maybe once we are clear on that, you can debate
whether the Code's vision is appropriate. I am afraid, based on the
pieces of this discussion that Pat has shared with me, that some of
the very important stakeholders on this list have misunderstood the
libraries' position in fundamental ways, which makes it impossible to
determine the stakes for video producers and distributors, much less
whether the librarians got it right.
I hope by sharing how the Code approaches the core questions in my
earlier email, we could help facilitate a more useful discussion of
the Code and its merits or demerits on this list and elsewhere. I
tried in my earlier email to distill those core questions, with help
from Pat, but I see that we need to be very clear that what we're
talking about here is the contents of the Code. So, while I appreciate
Gary's suggestion that everyone's views on these questions are
welcome, I plan to craft answers grounded in the Code principles. If
there is anything you would change or add, please let us know. Here
are the questions, again, rephrased per Jonathan's intervention:
*Does this Code really say that librarians can stream audio and video for
student use, without licensing it for that specific use?
*Does fair use law as the Code applies it really let a librarian copy
a VHS to a DVD?
*Does the Code's language on exhibits let a librarian show a video publicly
without getting public performance rights?
*Don't librarians have to pay educational prices to use films/videos in a
library context? What does the Code say on this subject?
*What authority is the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and
Research Libraries grounded in?
*How risky would it be for a librarian to actually use this Code?
Best,
Brandon
On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 12:08 PM, ghand...@library.berkeley.edu wrote:
Thanks, Pat. I think all of us on the list appreciate your efforts to
continue the dialog on these important issues and to listen to the
concerns being voiced about these guidelines. These concerns are based on
the experiences and knowledge of working media librarians, many of us in
the business for a great many years; I don't they're idle, naive, or
misinformed.
Most of us have assiduously built strong relationships with content
providers over
