Complete Copyright: An Everyday Guide for Librarians

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2006), "Complete Copyright: An Everyday Guide for Librarians", Library Review, Vol. 55 No. 7, pp. 460-462. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530610682254

Many readers will buy American Library Association (ALA) publications as standard, particularly if they work in the USA or have a committed interest to American professional publications in the field. The ALA has an impressive record in copyright, not only for its wide advocacy of democratic issues and the work of its Office of Information Technology Policy (where Russell is a copyright specialist), but also for the practical and applied tone of its books on copyright. Three spring to mind – Kenneth Crews' Copyright Essentials for Librarians and Educators (2000) and its new edition called Copyright Law for Librarians and Educators (2005), as well as Timothy Lee Wherry's Librarian's Guide to Intellectual Property in the Digital Age (2002). The agenda of such works includes key law like Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 (DMCA) and Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA, proposal for model state law) and Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act 2002 (TEACH), key issues like digital copyright and the internet, fair use and first sale doctrines, and, in Wherry's case, some useful things on patents and trademarks. Familiar UK counterparts include works by Sandy Norman, Paul Pedley, and Graham Cornish.

This practical tone reflects itself in the tone of such books and, in the case of Complete Copyright, its whole design and approach. It is as user‐friendly as possible, with its “Creative commons” copyright status, easy‐to‐use ring‐binder format (paper is strong enough to withstand heavy use), division into eight clear sections based on “characters asking about copyright issues”, and, on contrasting‐colour paper at the end, substantial resource information (selected portions of applicable US copyright law, fair use guidelines, and selective court cases like Kinko's and Acuff‐Rose Music, Eldred and Feist, Frena and Salinger and Bridgeman, and then last of all a glossary, bibliography, and index. Other cases, like Tasini and Grokster and Verizon appear in the text. Russell has identified key copyright issues with a sure eye, and supports her discussion with the checklists, examples, and follow‐up legal references. At the end come two slide‐show reproductions, which information professionals might use as a basis for any advocacy talks they give about copyright culture and compliance.

The approach is modern and clear. It avoids legalisms and a heavy hand. Copyright in traditional and electronic/digital fields is now a fact and a challenge for professionals, who deal with practical questions all the time and need to know the answers. So we move from tangible expression of ideas to fair use/dealing, which opens up the age‐old balance between rights and access as well as posing numerous challenges for non‐commercial library use and copyright clearance. Lending and resale are not immediately issues people think about but “first sale doctrine” issues lie at the heart of lending copyrighted materials, take on new challenges with networks and emails, and have particular resonance for academic libraries involved in online course content and delivery. The balance between rights and access extends to inter‐library loan and electronic reserves, where licences and royalties, intermediary responsibility and liability emerge rightly as important professional issues. Websites takes us, naturally in a US context, towards DMCA, online service provider liability and circumventing technical protection devices. The increasing reliance on licences/contracts and technological compliance leads us finally to the global character of copyright for today's professionals, and the challenge arising from the apparent shift of power towards rights holders. Library professionals cannot remain neutral as the familiar ALA advocacy position emerges.

This is a book worth getting for anyone working under US practice, and of particular value for librarians in school and college and academic libraries. Some of the discussions (say of Conference on Fair Use – CONFU and National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyright Works – CONTU guidelines, DMCA circumventions, and UCITA click‐on contracts) take us into uniquely “American” context. Yet in its clear presentation of the underlying issues, regardless of jurisdictional idiosyncrasies, its emphasis on the importance of having effective copyright policies, and its advocacy of “making a difference” (librarians cannot merely be neutral), the book has a lot of thoughtful things to offer.