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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1981)
Emerald VqI 83. No 51 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Friday. November 13, 1981 Photocopiers face infringement laws By MICHAEL MORROW Of tw ErnaraM Most people ignore the "Warning Concerning Copyright Restrictions" signs posted above every self-service machine in Kinko's as they photocopy a friend's textbook However, like hundreds of other daily photocopy users, they probably are breaking federal law PL 94-533 to be exact While it is improbable, they could end up being sued in federal court If found guilty, they could be fined actual damages — the amount not spent on a textbook — and statutory damages of up to $10,000 While the McGraw-Hill publishing company probably won't haul a person through the mud as a "copyright in fringer," it is concerned about the mas sive number of pages copied every year One hundred pages of a textbook copied by several hundred students in several hundred universities adds up to a great loss of money As the numbers have mushroomed into the millions of dollars, members of the American Association of Publishers have grown concerned, as well as major copier manufacturers and the print shops and libraries that own the a machines A recent court decision is adding fuel to the fire The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rule Oct 19 that Sony Cor poration of America is liable financially for copyright infringement by individuals using their equipment in their own homes Sony was sued by Universal City Studios, which alleged it would lose revenues because advertisers wouldn't pay for air time on vidoetaped shows Deciding that enforcement is impossi ble at the actual level of infringement (the home), the courts went after the man ufacturer Thus. Xerox Corporation might be responsible financially for pub lishers' lost revenues due to copyright infringement by people using Xerox's photocopy machines Part of Xerox s legal department has been assigned to work on the problem fulltime, and Kinko's, a nationwide fran chise of over I00 shops, asks each shop to send several hundred dollars monthly Students, profs technically guilty 107: Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use Notwithstanding the provisions of 106, the fair use of a copyrighte including such use hy reproductio or phonerecords or by any specified by that section, for p criticism, comment, news (including multiple co scholarship, or ment of copyri the use made is a fair use ge ether case shall e ancnpraracter of the use, r such use is of a commer for nonprofit educational of the copyrighted work: amount and substantialtiy of the used in relation to the copyrighted as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. (Added Pub. L. 94-553, title I, 101, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2546.) I I to a legal fund "No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form including photocopy without permission in writing from the publisher . This copyright statement, found at the beginning of most books and many other publications, is the law for local Kinko s manager Dave Gibson, despite its in consistent interpretations and en forcement "We are not in business to infringe copyrights, and we will simply refuse to reproduce material that is obviously copyrighted." Gibson says Although Kinko's cannot police every document copied by the self-service machines, the law is posted visibly in the shop, he adds Gibson says he is sensitive to student and faculty needs but says he must con orm to copyright laws. For instance, jvery University faculty member must sign a release form assuring Kinko’s that le or she is complying with the Fair Use clause The Fair Use clause interprets copy ight laws and addresses the public's ight of access to information. Education, as a part of that information access guaranteed by the United States Constitution, is treated as a special case, i The clause recognizes a special need |k for "greater certainty and protec tion for teachers.” The clause allows teachers cer tain rights to copy material unavailable to the public. In a 1973 Federal case — Williams and Wilkins versus the United States — the court ruled "flat proscrip tion on photocopying would impede research." While teachers are well protected, the status of students under the Fair Use clause is unclear. The AAP view is instructors and students have similar purposes, and "fair-use copies are intended essentially to supplement the use of the purchased work and not to serve as a substitute," says Charles Lieb, the association’s at torney "The guidelines offer a minimum stan dard," Vetri says "They also leave a large gray area where it becomes the judgment of the individual.” The gray area scares Dave Gigler, manager of the EMU printshop "I used to get cold chills about some of the things that we would copy in here,” Gigler says The idea of an FBI agent looking over a student s shoulder is pretty unreasona ble at this point, but a legal decision that would require photocopy machine man ufacturers to pay publishers money to offset revenue losses from copyright infringement apparently is possible A plan requiring print shops to pay publishers a set fee as a "license" cur rently is being discussed, Gigler says Print shops "could copy anything at all, and that pool of money would go to publishers to offset lost revenues," he says The added fee, Gigler says, probably would be passed to the consumer by raising copy prices Students fail to pay tuition and registration By ANN PORTAL Ot tiw Enwrald More than 180 University students paid tuition and fees late this term, and more than 200 students haven't paid at all Although the combined number of students who missed the second-week deadline is the lowest in two years, associate registrar Herb Cherek says he is concerned and would like to see a crack down on late payments "I think two weeks into the term to pay your fees is rather liberal and permissive," Cher ek says Students who have not yet paid tuition are attending school improperly, he says In addition, the University also must absorb the cost of producing registration mater ials and processing for students who never show up, Cherek says Nearly 99 percent of the student body paid fees during the first two weeks of the term, but 187 paid late and 236 still haven’t paid Yet the total number of students who missed the deadline is the lowest in the past seven terms The 423 students who failed to pay by Sept 30 compares to 557 last fall and 648 last winter But the improvement doesn’t impress Cherek Processing late fees is time consuming and inefficent. Late-paying students must have their fees reassessed and a late fee assessed Late fines increased this year to $10 for the first day and $2 for each additional day, up to a total of $50 In addition, each student who misses the two-week deadline must submit a peti tion to the Academic require ments Committee, asking to be allowed to register late Students are not considered formally registered until they pay fees That committee may begin taking a more serious look at each request and the reason given for late registration, Cherek says One frequent reason given so far this year is the late ar rival of Guaranteed Student Loans. However, he says "the financial aid office has gone out of its way” to accom modate students whose loans are late, extending deferred tuition and emergency loans "There is ample opportunity to come up with some ways or means to pay fees. " Cherek acknowledges students with prior debts, who are ineligible for emergency loans, may have problems coming up with tuition But he says students who can't come up with $180 for the first deferred tuition installment will have financial problems throughout the term. Many of the late payers are chronic offenders who also have problems with financial aid, Cherek says, and he is trying to talk individually with those students Besides the administrative hassles caused by late fees, Cherek says the University loses entitlement money for each student who pays after the fourth week But Keith Jackson, assistant budget director for the State Board of Higher Education, says late fees have no effect on entitlement money The board revises enrollment figures during the term, he says, and students who 'eventually show up” can be added in
