"Your catalog includes copyrighted works - isn't that illegal?" This question comes up often, and needs to be addressed for our customers' (and our own) peace of mind.

The first and most important point to be made about copyright, and intellectual property "rights" in general, is that they are not rights. They are privileges granted by government for a specified length of time (typically, the life of the creator plus a certain number of years) to ensure that creators will benefit from the propagation of their works. Rights are eternal, inherent and universal; privileges expire, are granted by an outside authority and apply only within that authority's jurisdiction.

The second, and almost equally important, point is that the purpose of copyright law is to make works available, not to sequester them. Any interpretation of copyright law that tends to make works inaccessible is therefore contrary to the clearly stated purpose of the law.

Fair Use

To ensure availability, there is what is called a "Fair Use" doctrine, that spells out the circumstances under which a copyrighted work may be used without compensating the copyright holder and without securing permission; in US copyright law, this doctrine appears in Section 107 of the US copyright statutes.

Favored uses under Fair Use are research, education and scholarship.

In settling whether a contested use constitutes Fair Use, the courts use a kind of "four-way test." They consider:

1. the purpose of the use, including whether the use is primarily for commercial or noncommercial purposes;
2. the nature of the work;
3. the amount and importance of the portions used in relation to the whole of the original work; and
4. the effect of the use on the potential market, or value of the original.

As we understand it here at Archivale, "use" means ultimate use, in other words the use to which the copyrighted material is put by the end user - our client (or if our client is a dealer, the customer to whom he sells the material that we furnish). It is the end-user's responsibility to ensure that he complies with the law that applies where he lives and/or works, and in the event of a dispute the question of Fair Use has to be settled between the client and the competent local authorities.

Library Exemptions

• Section 108(b) allows copying of unpublished works for preservation or security or for deposit at another library. Although our primary purpose in copying materials is not preservation, the effect in many cases is to propagate rare (and sometimes unique) works, in effect preserving them. That this actually occurs is proven by the fact that Archivale's predecessors have sold copies of US Government documents to the US Government, because those documents could no longer be found in the Government's own archives.
• Section 108(c): allows copying of published works for replacing a damaged, deteriorated, lost, or stolen copy, but only if "an unused replacement cannot be obtained at a fair price." The statute contains no definition of a "fair price." Our opinion is that the prices charged for most academic books, technical journals and technical reports are not fair with respect to the purpose of copyright law because they do not favor the propagation of the works; instead, they are so high that only well-endowed libraries and research institutions can afford them. Researchers who do not have access to such institutions, and lack sufficient disposable income to purchase the needed works themselves, are excluded.
• Section 108(d): allows copying of articles, or contributions to collections, or small parts of larger works, for a patron's private study, scholarship, or research.
• Section 108(e): allows copying of entire works for a patron's private study, scholarship, or research, if "a copy . . . cannot be obtained at a fair price." See our comment on Section 108(c).

• Admittedly, we do not allow our materials to circulate - we don't lend them - but that is true of many other libraries as well, and nearly every recognized library has within it "special collections" that do not circulate, even if the general collection does.
• Our pricing is based on the cost of reproduction and distribution - a fixed amount per photocopy sheet or scanner frame - not on the "market" value of the material.
• We do sometimes sell original, printed copies of books and reports that are surplus to our needs, but this too is done routinely by "real" brick-and-mortar libraries, and our surplus offerings are priced to move - that is, the primary object is to make room in our shelves and file drawers, not to earn the maximum that "the traffic will bear."