Current Copyright Law and Fair Use: The Council of Editors of Learned Journals, Keynote Address, MLA Convention 2000

Abstract

For its keynote address at the 2000 MLA Convention, the Council of Editors of Learned Journals asked two experts in the area of publishing and copyright law to update editors and publishers about issues of copyright and fair use facing us in the digital age. Robert Spoo, a former academic journal editor and now a lawyer specializing in intellectual property law, warns that editors must be more mindful than ever, in light of new forms of digital publishing and republishing of scholarly work, to take care of their professional interests. He examines some problems we can expect to confront as the analogue world is further ‘consumed’ by the digital world. The doctrine of fair use must be intelligently applied to support scholarly interests. Harold Orlans, a long-time observer of the publishing world as editor of The Independent Scholar and a columnist for Change, the bimonthly magazine of the American Association for Higher Education, responds to Spoo's presentation and suggests how those in the scholarly publishing field might effectively stand behind fair use by providing sound directives for both upholding fair use and reducing the growing chaos surrounding copyright permissions. Both Spoo and Orlans would like to see scholarly editors and publishers avoid timidity before the law and instead lead in the area of copyright and fair use.