Posted On August 29, 2016

Is VHS an obsolete format under Section 108?

Libraries routinely rely on Section 108, the limitations on exclusive rights specifically for libraries and archives in US Copyright Law, even if librarians don’t always realize that the services they provide, such as ILL, are encompassed in Section 108. Also included in Section 108 are provisions for libraries and archives to make replacement copies of published works in their collections if the work is ‘damaged, deteriorating, lost or stolen, or if the existing format in which the work is stored has become obsolete’. What is obsolete? Well, 108 (c) defines a format as obsolete ‘if the machine or device necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.’ For convenience, the text of 108 (c) is below. Read more

Posted On August 17, 2016

The Corporate Capture of Copyright

Catherine Fisk’s Working Knowledge:Employee Knowledge and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property, 1800 – 1930 (University of North Carolina Press, 2009) has been around for a few years, but I only became aware of it recently, after a colleague mentioned it in conversation. So my recommendation — it is a fascinating read — is belated, but I hope these reflections based on the book are still useful. Read more

Posted On August 8, 2016

Building Open: SocArXiv

Note to readers: This is the first post in our new series “Building Open” where we interview those who are building tools and services to support scholarship in the open. For our first installment, we talk to Philip Cohen of SocArXiv.

Ultimately, I do think we need to leave the old system behind, but it can work incrementally. For example, we need people to donate fewer free hours of labor (reviewing, editing, moderation, publishing) to for-profit, paywall publishers and more to open access institutions. But they can do that without completely boycotting all for-profit journals, if we build our institutions in an open and inclusive way. Read more