Changing copyright legislation: Two views

Abstract

Recent revisions of copyright law are the source of a debate about the issue of Fair Use in scholarly communication and the influence of commercial interest in determining how copyright is interpreted. The unusual format of this paper reflects a discussion over electronic mail between a library administrator and the director of a university press. The authors trade perspectives on the future of scholarly communication and attempt to construct a vision of a nonmarket-based system. They raise the issues of unrestricted photocopying, electronic distribution, and copyright protection in an era of ever-diminishing serials budgets. Differing views on the Fair Use provision are explored. The authors come to an agreement about the importance of preserving and distributing the results of academic research and discuss the roles of librarians, scholars, and other nonprofit entities in nurturing the process of scholarly communication in an arena separate from the mass market.