Copyright is Not [an] Inevitable, Divine, or Natural Right

-- Intellectual Freedom Blog

The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (ALA)

Courts in India have ruled in favor of educators who use parts of other people's work to create packets--without compensation to the authors of the works used.  This is a new and historical turn of the laws.

     Copyright, specially in literary works, is...not an inevitable,  
     divine, or natural right that confers on authors the absolute 
     ownership of their creations. It is designed rather to stimulate 
     activity and progress in the arts for the intellectual enrichment 
     of the public. Copyright is intended to increase and not to 
     impede the harvest of knowledge. It is intended to motivate the 
     creative activity of authors and inventors in order to benefit the 
     public.


Is this right or wrong?  Are written works meant "for the intellectual enrichment of the public" over the fair-rights use of the creator?  Should others be able to use your intellectual property without your permission or compensation?  How will this change the literary world?

Well, THIS is unique!

"The New York Public Library has adopted a very unusual sorting system"

--QUARTZ

 They're storing books by SIZE!

 It's a more efficient use of space...

They can store more books!

(Can you imagine trying to find a book when "the system is down"?)

Why we still need to keep books in our campus libraries

-- The Chronicle of Higher Education

 

"...I would like to make a plea for the value of keeping libraries as physical spaces--as actual, rather than virtual, edifices--and as buildings for housing books and encouraging the conversations between human beings and physical textual materials."

...

"Downsizing the stacks and increasing student and faculty reliance on virtual sources limits the silent conversation between people and books, arrests the opportunity for surprising encounters with unexpected materials, and thus dampens synthesis--the very stuff of new ideas."

Fire in Major Russian Library Destroys 1 MILLION Historic Documents

Fire in Major Russian Library Destroys 1 Million Historic Documents

--from The Guardian

A fire which ripped through one of Russia's largest university libraries is believed to have damaged more than 1 [million] historic documents, with some describing the fire as a cultural "Chernobyl."

Horrible!

.

University Copying Books for Teaching is Not Copyright Violation

from The Hindu

This is a surprise--and it's bad news for publishers.

Delhi University photocopy shop allowed to resume business as court dismisses suits initiated by three international publishing giants.

Excerpts:

     The Delhi High Court on Friday held that the photocopying of course packs 

     prepared by Delhi University comprising portions from books published by 

     Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis 

     did not amount to infringement of copyright.  

...

     "Copyright, especially in literary works, is thus not an inevitable, divine, or 

     natural right that confers on authors the absolute ownership of their creations. 

     It is designed rather to stimulate activity and progress in the arts for the

     intellectual enrichment of the public," said Justice Endlaw.

...

     "It is unfortunate that the court's decision today would undermine the

     availability of original content for the benefit of students and teachers.  We 

     will be considering the full judgement when it is made available, and shall 

     decide the next course of action after consultation with our legal teams," 

     [publishers] said in [a] statement.

Although this is a lawsuit in India, it is a step away from the rights of authors to own their work--a step away from the current perception of who owns the written word.  

Does an author's work belong to himself, or do educational institutions have the right to use copyrighted works without compensation to the owner?  

What is a copyright law worth in India?  

Is India just the first country to rule against authors' rights?

OPTICAL ILLUSION

Look at this twirling gif for 20 seconds.

Then look at the pictures below it...

or at any picture!

Print or Digital, It's Reading That Matters

--Publishers' Weekly; 16 Sep 16

"New surveys raise questions about Americans' book-reading habits."