0.4 Rights, exceptions, and limitations  (Page 11/12)

Creating course packs for students

University librarians are sometimes asked to create “course packs.” Course packs are typically a collection of excerpts from journals, articles, book chapters, and so forth that a teacher assigns for students enrolled in a particular course.

In the United States, many universities used to assemble course packs without obtaining permission from the copyright holders of the individual articles, believing that such copying qualified for the “fair use” exception for academic purposes. However, court decisions in the 1990s held that the preparation and sale of such course packs by commercial "copy shops" did not constitute fair use. It is not certain that those decisions would apply to universities, but the lawyers advising most universities have taken a cautious approach. At their urging, most US universities have now adopted systems for obtaining licenses to all materials included in course packs.

It is possible that a country that, unlike the United States, relies upon a list of specific exceptions and limitations, rather than a general fair use doctrine, to set the limits of copyright protection may have a specific provision that authorizes the creation of course packs. If not, librarians in such a country must obtain a written license from the copyright holders in order to create course packs. To reduce the administrative burden of seeking permission from many different copyright holders, librarians may wish to contract with collective management organizations like those described in  Module 5 . These private services who enter into affiliations with academic publishers and obtain blanket clearance licenses for the publisher’s entire catalog, or enter into agreements with a collective management organization representing publishers.

Adapting materials for the blind, visually impaired and other reading disabled persons

In most countries, specific exemptions allow librarians to provide modified copies of works to serve the needs of visually impaired patrons. A more detailed discussion of the copyright exception for visually impaired persons can be found in Judith Sullivan’s report of the Fifteenth Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, which is available  here . This situation may change soon if a treaty currently being considered by WIPO is adopted.

Inter-library loans

The copyright statutes of some countries contain exceptions for inter-library loans. This enables a library to make a copy of a work for the purpose of lending it to a patron of another library. Sometimes the statutory exception for inter-library loan will require the library to pay a licensing fee in order to make the reproduction, the amount of which is typically determined by the government or a collecting society. In certain countries, such as Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, a librarian must determine that the article or work is not commercially available before the inter-library loan exception can be invoked.

Similar to inter-library loan statutes are so-called “supply” statutes, which allow a library to make a copy of a work for another library, but do not require that the purpose of the copy be for the private use of a patron. Supply statutes vary among jurisdictions. Some countries (for example, Fiji) require that the librarian first attempt to purchase the work at market value. Others (for example, Antigua) allow such copying only when it is not practicable to purchase a copy. Still others (for example, Ireland) only allow such copying if it would not be reasonable to ask the copyright holder’s permission.