Editor’s note: John’s full name was withheld in order to protect his identity.
With higher-education costs rising, students are looking to save money on expenses and textbooks, but some recent alternatives to buying textbooks may be illegal.
Bizzell Memorial Library owns two scanners — called Knowledge Imaging Centers — that allow students to scan pages and save them directly to an external hard drive, costing the user nothing. Some have been abusing the privilege though, scanning whole chapters and textbooks instead of buying them.
“I make electronic copies of chapters for certain classes, probably two or three of them,” said John, an OU senior. “I just check the book out at the library and scan the pages. It’s easier to carry that way and saves a lot of money.”
John was at one the library’s scanners Tuesday afternoon, where he had moved a chair to sit on while scanning and was playing with his iPod between scans. John wasn’t the only one. Within a 35-minute time frame on Tuesday, four people were in line with books to copy.
This practice may be illegal, depending on how much of the text a student is using. U.S. copyright laws have an exemption for those copying resources for academic and scholarly uses, provided they are using a fair amount.
“What is fair is up to one’s judgment,” OU law professor Srividhya Ragavan said. “We usually look at the purpose and character of the work copied, the nature of the work, the amount taken and the effect on the market.”
This means something being copied for the purpose of transformation or parody is acceptable for academic uses, but copying textbook pages verbatim is not, said Ragavan, who researches trademarks, patents and intellectual property.
Usually, publishers will limit the amount of a book a person can access to 100 pages or 10 percent, depending on the length of the book, Ragavan said. However, there is no hard-and-fast rule about how much a person can copy before violating the law.
University Libraries outlines what it considers to be fair use of a book for academic purposes, spokeswoman Sarah Robbins said.
“We normally say two chapters, two articles of a journal, 50 pages or 20 percent of a work, whichever comes first,” Robbins said.
Library employees use these guidelines when scanning works and placing them online for professors, Robbins said. Employees recommend students follow the guidelines as well, but they cannot enforce them.
“It’s self-service, so we don’t watch anyone,” Robbins said. “We have the copyright laws posted by the photocopiers, and the library website lists our policies. In the end, people have to live with their conscience.”
Before scanning any materials, users must first accept the copyright law and terms of conditions through an on-screen prompt.
John said he believed copying chapters was fine.
“I don’t think it’s illegal,” he said, pointing to the posted copyright law. “I’m not selling it.”
The practice is against the law, and a book publisher could decide to pursue an individual for damages, Ragavan said. It is similar to people illegally downloading music rather than paying record companies for music.
“If OU is making the scanners available and if they know students are violating copyright laws, they should take action,” Ragavan said. “They have a duty to inform students that they should not do it, but they cannot be held responsible.”
Overall, the main responsibility lies with the student to make sure he or she is following the law.
“Ignorance of the law is never an excuse,” Ragavan said.
COPYING GUIDELINES:
You’re allowed to copy:
» 50 pages of a book or journal
» Two chapters of a book
» Two articles of a journal
» 20 percent of the work
» Whichever comes first
— Source: University Libraries website
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librariananonymous 1 year, 3 months ago
John is right. And under the law, the library is only required to alert patrons that they are responsible for their own actions when making a copy, NOT for policing their copying. Those copying guidelines at the end of the article refer ONLY to what libraries are allowed to do, not what patrons are allowed to do.
fs 1 year, 3 months ago
Sorry, but my understanding in reading the legalese within every text book amounts to this: You can make the number of copies you want, however you want, as long as your copies DON'T PROFIT you in any way. I think the librarians have a gross misunderstanding here.
librariananonymous 1 year, 3 months ago
Anonymous, it's not the librarians who misunderstand -- it's the reporter and the law professor. You go ahead and copy whatever you want. As long as you aren't selling it, doing it for pay, or distributing it to 5000 of your closest friends, you're good.
Candice 1 year, 3 months ago
I think it is common knowledge that we shouldn't be copying textbooks rather than buying them. Yes, college students are poor, but if you put yourself in the textbook writers shoes, it's just not fair to them. If you wrote a textbook, you would probably be mad if people just copied it instead of bought it. If you can't afford to buy a textbook, at least rent it, then the writer at least gets something out of it.