Chapter One
General Principles
The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), a major legal publisher, puts this warning in many of their publications:
Photocopying any portion of this publication is strictly prohibited unless express written authorization is first obtained from BNA Books … Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by BNA Books for libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) … provided that $1.00 per page is paid directly to CCC …
We didn’t ask BNA for permission to reprint their copyright statement, nor did we pay anything for it. But we’re not worried about being sued. Under the fair use doctrine, copyright law allows authors to quote each other for purposes of criticism.[1] So here’s our criticism of BNA’s warning: although it may be an accurate statement of BNA’s wishes, it’s not an accurate statement of the law. Users are often allowed to copy portions of copyrighted material without permission; our use of BNA’s copyright statement is just one example. And if you don’t need permission, you don’t need to pay $1.00, or any amount, to the Copyright Clearance Center.
Statements like BNA’s are not uncommon. Publishers and pro-publisher organizations routinely make overreaching statements about copyright law. As you may have already guessed, our book is not written from the publishers’ perspective. It’s written by librarians, for librarians.
If you believe that access to information and creative works ought to be a privilege rather than a right, you probably wouldn’t have picked up this book. Librarians like to share intellectual property. That’s our job.
- ↑ We discuss fair use in Chapter Four.
1
