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 | Libraries Join CCIA in FTC Complaint Challenging Copyright Warnings
If you've ever watched a major sporting event, you're probably familiar with the dire copyright warning usually read by the game's announcers informing viewers that any use not expressly approved is forbidden. Or perhaps you've seen a book that states on its copyright page that photocopying is prohibited? This week, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) an international association of computer and communications industry firms that includes Google and Microsoft, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) arguing that those warnings are overly broad and misrepresent copyright law.
That complaint was backed this week by the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), which filed a letter of support with the FTC. LCA consists of five major library associations: the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Medical Library Association (MLA), and the Special Libraries Association (SLA), collectively representing over 139,000 libraries in the United States.
CCIA officials said the complaint is part of newly launched campaign, DefendFairUse.org initiative, "aimed at exposing how media and sports organizations have systematically misled consumers" regarding their legal rights to use content. In its complaint, the CCIA targeted Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), NBC/Universal, and several other corporations, including publisher Penguin USA, alleging that these corporations "have misled consumers for years" because of deceptive and threatening statements. "Every one of us has seen or heard that copyright warning at the beginning of a sports game, DVD or book," said Ed Black, CCIA president and CEO, during a press conference at the National Press Club. "These corporations use these warnings not to educate their consumers, but to intimidate them." Black said such tactics "force consumers to continually forgo lawful activities to which they are entitled under federal law and the Constitution."
In a statement, NBC Universal fired back, saying there was nothing "unlawful, untruthful or inaccurate" about their warning labels and that they "adhere to long accepted legal standards."
In a letter to the FTC, Prue Adler, ARL associate executive director, concurred that some copyright warnings create enough doubt among library patrons and educators that they refrain from exercising their fair use rights. "A teacher, for example, may wish to show a class a film borrowed from her school library," Adler wrote. "While [the law] clearly permits the performance of the film, the copyright warning inserted by the film's distributor may prohibit it. Unless the teacher happens to have ready access to a copyright lawyer, she has no way of knowing that the film distributor's prohibition has no legal effect." The fair use analysis is complex enough, Adler concluded, "without the obfuscation caused by intimidating, inaccurate copyright warnings."
The CCIA complaint asks the FTC to order those companies named to cease with their current copyright warnings and instead institute a campaign to inform consumers of their rights under fair use laws. Such a shift might represent a watershed moment for consumers and for libraries: in an age when major media companies have largely succeeded in framing the copyright debate around piracy, the CCIA efforts offer libraries a partner—and possibly the backing of some deep-pocketed members—to aid their longtime efforts to educate users about fair use. Adler, however, cautioned the LJ Academic Newswire that the campaign was a CCIA campaign. The FTC complaint she said, is not a case of "Google vs. Viacom," rather a sign that fair use is increasingly important not just for libraries but also for the commercial sector.
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Johns Hopkins to Assist Opening of Afro-American Newspapers Archive
The Johns Hopkins University has been awarded a $476,000 to collaborate with the Baltimore-based Afro-American newspapers to open the company's historic archives to the public. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded project will involve the university's Center for Africana Studies and the Center for Educational Resources at the Sheridan Libraries in opening the archives, which span 115 years and comprise 2,055 linear feet of boxed materials. Resources include letters, business records, journals, personal correspondence and photographs documenting not only the history of the newspaper company, but its role as an advocate for social change both in Baltimore and the nation. Finding aids currently exist for only a small portion of the large Afro-American collection, rendering it "a hidden treasure," said archivist Marilyn Benaderet.
Specifically, the Mellon grant will support the development of a new archival training and an internship program that will train students in collection assessment, description and processing. Candice Dalrymple, associate dean of university libraries and director of the Center for Educational Resources said the libraries hope to attract student interns not only from Johns Hopkins, but also from other colleges and universities here in Baltimore, "allowing us to tap into the strengths of the city's higher education community." Founded in 1892 by John Murphy, Sr., a former slave, the Afro is the nation's longest running family-owned African-American weekly newspaper.
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| Congress Marks Up Presidential Library Bill; More on Bush Library Suit
According to the Dallas Morning News, John McElhaney, Southern Methodist University's (SMU) attorney, confirmed that the George W. Bush Library selection panel could make its final decision by the middle of September. However, he said the university rejected a proposal that would let those with knowledge of SMU's library plan answer questions confidentially as part of a lawsuit brought by a tenant who claims he was improperly evicted by SMU to make way for the library. "We're not making any deals," McElhaney said in court, calling the proposal an "an illegitimate way to force us to yield." Property owner Gary Vodicka sued SMU in 2005, alleging SMU used "fraud and intimidation" to clear an apartment complex to make way for the library, a charge SMU denies.
Meanwhile, a Congressional Quarterly report said that legislation that would require disclosure of donors to presidential libraries is set for discussion by a Senate panel. However, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) argued that the proposed legislation unfairly forces Bush to disclose donors for his presidential library even while he's still raising funds. The measure, which already passed the House by 390-34, would mandate quarterly disclosure of all contributions of $200 or more to presidential library fundraising organizations.
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| Public Appeal? With LA Times Editorial NIH Policy Hits Critical Mass
After three years of lobbying and debate, has the National Institutes of Health's public access policy hit critical mass? An editorial by the Los Angeles Times marked the first endorsement of a major American newspaper for the NIH policy and public access to publicly funded research. "The LA Times editorial affirms that this issue has mainstream appeal," SPARC executive director Heather Joseph told the LJ Academic Newswire. She said the editorial signaled that the access issue has finally extended "beyond the desires of any individual sector of industry." The policy, part of an appropriations bill, has passed the House and now awaits a Senate vote. Continued opposition from publishers, who say the policy is at best duplicative and possibly jeopardizes their business, however, is likely to continue.
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Best Sellers in Language, December 2006–present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
(13 digit ISBNs in brackets)
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Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language
Allan, Keith
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521525640 [9780521525640]. $29.99
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How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, and Languages Live or Die
Crystal, David
Overlook
2006. ISBN 1585678481 [9781585678488]. $32.50
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The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left
Crystal, David
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 019920764x [9780199207640]. $19.95
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Talkin Black Talk: Language, Education, and Social Change
H. Samy Alim
Teachers College Press
2007. ISBN 0807747467 [9780807747469]. $26.95
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When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge
Harrison, K. David
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0195181921 [9780195181920]. $29.95
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Story of French
Nadeau, Jean-Benoit
St Martin's Press
2006. ISBN 0312341830 [9780312341831]. $25.95
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Introduction to the Philosophy of Language
Morris, Michael
Cambridge University Press
2007. ISBN 0521603110 [9780521603119]. $29.99
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When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, For Better and/Or Worse
Yagoda, Ben
Broadway Books
2007. ISBN 0767920775 [9780767920773]. $21.95
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Performativity
Loxley, James
Routledge
2007. ISBN 0415329264 [9780415329262]. $21.95
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Art of Teaching Spanish: Second Language Acquisition from Research to Praxis
Ed. by Rafael Salaberry & Barbara Lafford
Georgetown University Press
2006. ISBN 1589011333 [9781589011335]. $39.95
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Language and Globalization
Fairclough, Norman
Routledge
2006. ISBN 0415317657 [9780415317658]. $33.95
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Language and Social Relations
Agha, Asif
Cambridge University Press
2007. ISBN 0521576857. 9780521576857. $34.99
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Gallimaufry: A Hodgepodge of Our Vanishing Vocabulary
Quinion, Michael
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0198610629 [9780198610625]. $25.00
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Language and Social Disadvantage: Theory into Practice
Ed. by Judy Clegg & Jane Ginsborg
John Wiley
2006. ISBN 0470019751 [9780470019757]. $55.00
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Rancheros in Chicagoacan: Language and Identity in a Transnational Community
Farr, Marcia
University of Texas
2006. ISBN 0292714831 [9780292714830]. $22.95
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Prism of Grammar: How Child Language Illuminates Humanism
Roeper, Thomas
MIT Press
2007. ISBN 0262182521 [9780262182522] $37.95
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Who Says? Working-Class Rhetoric, Class Consciousness, and Community
William Degenaro
University of Pittsburgh Press
2007. ISBN 0822959380 [9780822959380]. $24.95
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Twentieth-Century English: History, Variation, and Standardization
Mair, Christian
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521832195 [9780521832199]. $85.00
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Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows
Pennycook, Alastair
Routledge
2007. ISBN 0415374979 [9780415374972]. $33.95
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The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language
Ed. by Ernest Lepore & Barry C. Smith
Clarendon/Oxford
2006. ISBN 0199259410 [9780199259410]. $160.00
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