Against Monopoly

defending the right to innovate

Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely.

When copyright forces copying against your will

Back when libraries only had printed material, they could lend books under the first sale doctrine: once they had purchased a legally copyrighted work, they could sell or dispose of it as the see fit. Things have changed a bit with the advent of online content. To prevent libraries from giving away PDFs, publishers are now licensing on-line content, which is different from selling: use is limited to library premises, usually extended to a campus.

This raises issues with inter-library loans (ILL). No problems with hard copies, which are lent physically and returned. With online content, licenses do not allow to simply forward a PDF file. As Elsevier makes explicit in its policy, the requested item needs to be printed, then scanned before being send through Ariel (an electronic ILL network most libraries use). Thus, copyright rules lead to more paper being wasted because content is online. Great for efficiency and the environment.

Hat tips: Peter Suber and DigitalKoans.

[Posted at 03/02/2008 07:59 PM by Christian Zimmermann on Fair Use comments(0)]

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