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Re: copyright question-duplcation for loan



Take a look at Section 108(c) of the copyright law.  A good source for the law is http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/108.html.  That section governs reproduction for preservation, and it says that a "published work duplicated solely for the purpose of replacement of a copy or phonorecord that is damaged, deteriorating, lost, or stolen, or if the existing format in which the work is stored has become obsolete."  As I read this, if you lose the copy, then you can get a replacement copy made.  You would still have to first make sure that you can't buy another one form the vendor.

You might be able to justify a fair use defense for making the copy if you knew that you were loaning the only extant copy in the world and destroyed that copy as soon as the original was returned.  In general, though, the law says that if the copy you have is lost or becomes deteriorated, your first obligation is to buy a replacement copy from the vendor.  Only when you can't do that can you duplicate your original copy. 

Peter Hirtle

At 10:31 AM 2/14/2001 -0700, STEVEN P. FISHER wrote:
 I am passing this query along from our ILL folks. They wanted to know if
before they loan a video to another educational institution they made
a duplicate copy for preservation purposes would they be violating
copyright? As I understand it, one of the exceptions to copyright is
duplication for preservation purposes. So the question is, can the
act of loaning an item be considered a preservation risk great enough to
justify the creation of a second copy under copyright law? These are
commercially produced videos purchased by my library. Any copyright
experts out there who want to tackle this one?

---------------------------------------------------------------
Peter B. Hirtle
Co-Director                                pbh6@cornell.edu
Cornell Institute for Digital Collections     607/255-4033 (ph)
2B Kroch Library                                   607/255-9524 (fax)
Cornell University                <http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/>
Ithaca, NY  14853
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