Re: How do you request digital format for a pdf interlibrary loan journal article where a digital format is available for the article?...

From: Simon Spero <ses_at_nyob>
Date: Sat, 7 May 2011 15:52:31 -0400
To: CODE4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
On Sat, May 7, 2011 at 7:06 AM, karim boughida <kboughida_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> Don't be dismissive so fast. You may go back and do your homework. Check
> with your Counsel or literature. What's happening here is a work
> around LEGAL realities.
>

[I am not a lawyer.]

It's always a good idea to check with counsel, but it's a good idea to make
sure that you talk to the right person in counsel's office since this is a
relatively niche area of copyright law, and restrictions on single  article
ILL  are more likely to arise in contract  rather than under copyright, in
which case  they may have to check the specific provisions for each
publisher.

The right to make a copy of a single article from a periodical or collection
for ILL are granted under 17 USC § 108 (d) and  (g).   The only specific
restriction on the use of digital formats comes in section (b) (which covers
unpublished works).  It's hard to see how printing then scanning helps make
legal anything that would be otherwise illegal under 108, so it would seem
to be a licensing issue.

Exit question:   printing an article creates one perfected copy; scanning
the printout creates a second copy, both as part of the same transaction.
108 (d)/(g) only authorize a single copy in this situation. Is this relying
on fair use to cover the printed copy (which I assume is immediately
destroyed unread once the scanning is complete?)

Simon
Received on Sat May 07 2011 - 15:53:18 EDT