Robin Netherton wrote:
> Certainly, copying a whole book is a violation. But I've occasionally resorted to > Xeroxing books that are technically in copyright, when they're out of print or otherwise > unavailable and I need to refer to them longer than ILL will let me. In the one chance in a > million that the copyright owners in these cases wander into my private office and find > the copies in my files, I'll take my lumps. (Given the books in question, though, I > suspect the authors would more likely be amazed that would go to such lengths to get them.)
Ah: So you think anything you wish to do and that benefits you is ethical as long as you don’t get caught?
I don’t leave my purse, or any other property, unattended around people with attitudes like that.
> Copying pages or chunks here and there is something that happens every day in every university library and Kinko's.
Ah: So since every crime and violation of law happens every day, somewhere, it’s OK for you to commit any of them?
I don’t even want to be in the room with people who have ethics like that. Who knows what they’d feel OK about doing.
Somehow, I manage to do research—-although there’s so much grandstanding, exaggeration, and sheer bullshit about “research” and “scholarship” in reenactment communities I try not to mention it much—-without violating copyrights. This is greatly facilitated by actually buying the books, and yes I also buy “rare” books.
> I'm not sure how the law would cover independent lectures that are characterized as classes but not within the walls of an institution.
Then since you’re giving such lectures, don’t you think you should find out for sure?
There are also a number of other legal guidelines, including using only small portions of a work and a small number of works, having the need arise when there is not enough time to purchase the publications, and others.
> Copyright law, overall, is full of exceptions, loopholes, conflicting precedents, and argument. Some lines are clearer than others, though.
Not fully understanding it does not give you license to do whatever you’d like.
> I should also note that I generally agree with Fran on issues of copyright, and I would encourage her to read my posts with a consideration of the context of the conversation.
OK, so we’re using the third person now, not addressing each other. So: I don’t think from the above comments that Robin and I are in agreement about copyright law. I’d encourage Robin to read some books on it. Nolo Press has a good selection.
Fran Lavolta Press http://www.lavoltapress.com _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
