Copyright and the University Community: Developing a Comprehensive Copyright Policy Executive Summary Georgia Harper University of Texas System Office of General Counsel Full Text of Presentation: http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/admin2.htm

Copyright used to be an esoteric branch of intellectual property law

Until recently most people didn't care about or need to understand copyright law, but technological advances earlier this century began to change that. The photocopy machine in particular seemed to upset long-standing gentlemen's agreements between publishers and consumers of printed works about the scope of uses consumers might make of such works without permission. Amendments to copyright law in the mid-70's ostensibly addressed these changes, but then everything seemed to fall apart in the 90's.

The electronic environment has changed everything

Suddenly, ordinary people can copy others' works with incredible ease, become publishers, and use others' works as the basis for new works, incorporating things here and there. These potential creators and publishers work for or attend our universities so we need to understand copyright law. Unfortunately, copyright law is hard to understand in the print environment; in the electronic environment, it borders on inscrutable. This means that we must identify copyright issues, apply 200 year old law to cutting edge technologies and create guidelines that real people will follow. No small order.

For those who come into constant contact with copyright issues (library personnel and faculty members, among others) the situation is very nearly critical. To some it hardly matters which way it goes, just so long as it goes. But it should matter to us, for we have much to lose if our interests aren't represented in the resolution of the problems presented by new technologies.

Eventually, copyright issues will recede into the background once again, because intellectual property and information are becoming much too important to leave in limbo. They are staples of industry, and industry needs more certainty to do business than academia has been willing to tolerate. Between now and then, however, there is much work to be done.

This presentation makes the following points:

• The costs of noncompliance with copyright law, both actual and potential, require that universities implement copyright policies to reduce costs and minimize liabilities.

• Compliance strategies should involve university action in five areas:

  • Providing guidance about copyright law to faculty, staff and students;

  • Developing strategies to obtain permission to use others' works when necessary;

  • Developing strategies to reduce the need for permission to use others' works;

  • Clarify ownership and other interests in copyright works

  • Taking a more active role in copyright management.

• These five areas are interconnected. We need a comprehensive effort to coordinate activities on all five fronts and avoid foreseeable difficulties:

  • Explaining the limits of fair use without also facilitating access to permissions would hamstring users;

  • Facilitating access to permissions without reference to fair use would cost a fortune;

  • Embarking on massive distance learning initiatives without clarifying who owns what will lead to considerable confusion and lost opportunities

  • Haphazard development of digital libraries and scholarly electronic publication could be costly and/or ineffective.

The University of Texas System has revised its Intellectual Property Policy to better address copyright ownership and management, use of others' works and support for scholarly electronic publishing

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