Monday, May 23, 2011

Georgia State copyright case - proposed injunction

Is this what the future holds for academic libraries? As Kevin Smith, J.D. points out in his Scholarly Communications blog post, if the publishers win and this injunction (with no mention on fair use) is adopted by the Judge, universities are going to be pressured to adopt this model to avoid litigation.

A nightmare scenario for higher education

In anticipation of the trial starting on Monday in the copyright infringement case brought against Georgia State University by Cambridge, Oxford and Sage publishers, and partially financed by the Copyright Clearance Center, there has been a flurry of motions, mostly relating to the admission of various pieces of evidence. But amongst that deluge of paper is a truly frightening document, the proposed injunction that the plaintiffs are requesting if they win the case. I have always known that there was a lot a stake for higher education in this case, but the injunction the publishers want would be a nightmare scenario beyond even my most pessimistic imaginings.