unconditional copyright removing the camouflage denise troll covey principal librarian for special...

Unconditional CopyrightRemoving the Camouflage

Denise Troll CoveyPrincipal Librarian for Special Projects

Erin RhodesCopyright Permission Assistant

Presentation to ALA LobbyistsNovember 15, 2005

“Unconditional Copyright”

• No registration

• No renewal

– Fewer than 15% of copyrights were renewed

when renewal was required

• No circumvention

– Even if technologies or licenses disallow public rights

• “Limited” duration

– Published = 95 years or author +70

– Unpublished = 120 years

U.S. Copyright Camouflage

• Difficult to determine copyright status & ownership

– Copyright laws are complex

– Office of Copyright keeps no records of ownership

– Publisher records are not complete or easily accessible

• Estimate 92% of books ever published

are still in copyright, but out of print

– No revenue for copyright owners

– No easy access for potential readers

• Seeking non-exclusive permission to digitize

& provide open access to copyrighted books

1999–2001 Feasibility study

2002–2003 Posner study

2003–2004 Million book project

Research

Feasibility Study 1999 – 2001

• 368 random books in the library catalog

• 95% (351) were copyright protected

• 21% (76) were eliminated from the study

– Mistakenly cataloged as books (10%)

– Third-party copyright ownership (11%)

• Final sample was 277 titles

(209 publishers)

Feasibility Study

• Intermittent labor – 4 different people

• Process

– Initial request letters – sent 278

– Follow-up request letters – sent 246

• Over 60% of publishers received 2nd or 3rd letter

• Subsequent letters sent months later

• Did not track transaction costs

Permission granted

Permission denied

No response

Not located

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Titles

19%

27%

30%

24%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Publishers

21%

28%

23%

27%

• Mistakenly requested permission for 4 out of copyright books

• 1 permission granted; 3 denied•

• Data NOT included in graph

Overall Results

Permission granted

Permission denied

No response

78% publishers contacted

(81% of the titles)

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Titles

34%

37%

30%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Publishers

36%

30%

35%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Titles

55%

45%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Publishers

46%

54%

51% publishers responded

(53% of the titles)

Average 101 days for permission granted

Average 124 days for permission denied

Permission grantedRestrictions applied to 68% of titles

Permission denied

Restrictions Applied

• 54% access restricted to Carnegie Mellon users

• 23% display full citation

• 22% no 3rd party material

• 15% provide copy

• 15% not for sale

• 8% license to provide access expires

• 6% fee required

• 6% individual use only

• 3% permission to scan expires

Analysis by Print Status

• 73% sample was out of print books – More difficult to locate, less likely to respond,

but more likely to grant permission if they responded

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Samplecontent

Notlocated

Responserate

Successrate

In print

Out of print

Response rate based on contacts

Success rate based on responses

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Samplecontent

Notlocated

Responserate

Successrate

Domestic

Foreign

• 19% sample was foreign publications – Difficult to locate, but more likely to grant permission

Analysis by Publisher Location

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Samplecontent

Notlocated

Responserate

Successrate

Scholarly associations

University presses

Commercial publishers

Museums & galleries

Analysis by Publisher Type

• 68% sample was published by commercial publisher– Most difficult to locate, least likely to respond

& least likely to grant permission

Conclusions

• It is possible to secure copyright permission

to digitize & provide open access to books

• Future studies

– Use dedicated labor

– Track transaction costs

– Experiment to increase response & success rates

– Improve data management

Posner Project 2002 – 2003

• 1106 fine & rare volumes in the Posner Collection

• 26% (284) were copyright protected

(104 publishers)

• Associated archival documents

– Correspondence

– Newspaper clippings

– Book catalogs

• Initially intermittent labor – one person

– Sent 60 letters, but did no follow up

• Dedicated labor May through Oct 2003

• Process

– Initial request letter – sent 174

– Follow up phone calls or email – 159

• Tracked transaction costs

Posner Project 2002 – 2003

Still negotiating

Permission granted

Permission denied

No response

Not located

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Titles

5%13%

20%

61%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Publishers

31%

5%

18%

43%

1% 3%

• Mistakenly requested permission for 74 out of copyright books

• All granted permission

• Data NOT included in graph

Overall Results

69% publishers contacted

(87% of the titles)

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Titles

6%

23%

71%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Publishers

7%

28%

65%

Permission granted

Permission denied

No response

Permission grantedRestrictions applied to 29% of titles

Permission denied

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Titles

25%

75%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Publishers

30%

70%

64% publishers responded

(82% of the titles)

Comparative Results

Feasibility (titles)

Posner (titles)

Posner (publishers)

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Notlocated

Responserate

Successrate

66%

45%

93%

75%



Comparative Analysis of Restrictions

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Providecopy

CarnegieMellon only

Displaycitation

Individualuse

Englishonly

No 3rdparty

Not for sale Permissionto scanexpires

License toprovideaccessexpires

Feerequired

Posner study

Feasibility study

• Revised, more informative letter

• Prompt follow up calls or email

• The age & nature of the Posner Collection

• Copyright holders could see

the quality of the work on the web

Attribute Increased Success

Analysis by Print Status

• Not yet done

• Issue learned from Million Book Project

– Librarians consider book to be out of print

if exact work is no longer available in print

– Publishers consider book to be out of print

if no newer edition is available in print

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Collectioncontent

Notlocated

Responserate

Successrate

Domestic

Foreign

Analysis by Publisher Location

• 29% content was foreign publications– More difficult to locate, & slightly less likely to respond

or to grant permission

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Samplecontent

Noaddress

Responserate

Successrate


Scholarly assoc.

University press

Commercial

Authors & estates

Special publishers

Unknown

• Special publishers are most likely, commercial publishers least likely to grant permission

• Authors & estates or units unknown own most of the content – difficult or impossible to locate

Transaction Costs

$ 10,808 FTE labor

$ 379 Phone calls

$ 100 Paper & postage

$ 11,287 TOTAL

May 2003 – October 2003

Does not include legal fees, administrator time, or cost of Internet connectivity or database creation.

$78 per book/volume

174 letters

159 follow up calls or email

Consultations with Legal Counsel

• WIPO signatories do not have the same copyright

laws (interpretations & practices)

– Eventually abandoned seeking permission for foreign

works because legal counsel wanted to examine every title

• Associated archival documents

– Fair use to digitize correspondence

from book dealers

– Perhaps fair use to digitize clippings

– Book catalogs are copyright protected

Problems Seeking Permission

• Determining copyright status

• Identifying & locating copyright holders

• Publishers

– Slow to respond

– Don’t know what they published

– Don’t know what rights they have

– Afraid of open access & lost revenue

Million Book Project 2002 – 2004

• Include 100,000+ U.S. copyrighted books

• Initial focus was Books for College Libraries

– 12,300 (25%) are definitely still in copyright

– 35,500 (71%) require checking copyright renewal records

• Initially intermittent labor

• Dedicated labor started November 2003

• Changed process to reduce transaction costs

– Books for College Libraries as approval plan for publishers

Request Letter & Strategy

• Educate

– Users want to find information online, but use print

– Open access increases use, even use of older works

– Open access does not decrease sales

– Open access can increase sales

– Currently no revenue

from out of print books


• Ask for non-exclusive permission to digitize

& provide open access to

– All out of print, in copyright titles

– All titles published prior to ____________

– All titles published # or more years ago

– List of titles they provide

• No restrictions allowed


• Assure

– Follow preservation standards & copyright law

– Restrict print & save to only one page at a time

• Give images, metadata, & OCR – Generate revenue from fee-based services

– Were seeking print on demand vendor,

but Indian government objects

to commercial partners

• Then prompt follow up

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

16%

16%4%

61%

3%

Permission granted

Permission denied

Not at this time

Still negotiating

No response(3 strikes & you’re out)

Preliminary Results

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

11%

44%

45%

Permission granted

Permission denied

Not at this time19% university presses

6% scholarly associations

Completed Negotiations

Comparative Results

Feasibility (titles)

Posner (titles)

Posner (publishers)

MBP (publishers)Completed negotiations

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Notlocated

Responserate

Successrate

66%

45%



97%

45%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

17%

70%

7%

Titles # or more years ago

Titles prior to _______

Specified titles

All out of print titles

Analysis of Permissions Granted

6%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Contacted Responserate

Completionrate

Successrate


• Special publishers, authors & estates are most likely to grant permission

• Commercial publishers & university presses are least likely to grant permission

Scholarly assoc.

University press

Commercial

Authors & estates

Special publishers

Preliminary Transaction Costs

$ 28,582 Labor

$ 483 Phone calls


$ 29,281 TOTAL

Nov 2003 – Sept 2004

Does not include legal fees, administrator time, or cost of Internet connectivity or database creation.

$0.62 per book Roughly 47,500 titles

640 letters (25% in email)

582 follow up calls or email

Costs including Administrator Time

$ 31,027 Labor

$ 533 Phone calls


$ 41,780 TOTAL

Nov 2003 – Sept 2004

Does not include legal fees, cost of Internet connectivity, database creation, or administrator time on grant proposals.

$0.88 per book Roughly 47,500 titles

Administrator

– 889 email messages (5 min)

– Guess 10 letters

– Guess $50 phone calls

– Guess 300 hours data analysis,

presentations & publications

University Presses

• Began with university presses – Preliminary analysis of feasibility study data indicated

they were more likely to grant permission

• Snags– Copyright often reverts to author

when books go out of print

– More recent books will never go out of print because of print on demand contracts

– Third party copyright ownership issues

– 13 presses will consider titles WE specify

Experiments

• Compiling lists of titles – Books for College Libraries– 6 minutes per title to verify citation & copyright status

• Using Lesk’s copyright renewal records database

– Not cost effective to verify print status

– List of 300 titles takes 30 hours to prepare

• Locating authors or estates – Authors Registry– Charged $2.50 fee per author/estate found

– Same day response (25 requests)

– Found 52%

– 92% accuracy rate

Kahle v. Ashcroft – Supreme Court

• Challenge U.S. copyright system

– No records of copyright ownership

– Denies public access to orphaned works

without providing any benefits

• Submit examples of how barriers

to using out of print

books burden your

work http://notabug.com/kahle/

http://notabug.com/kahle/

Public Domain Enhancement Act

• Copyright holders

– Pay small fee ($1.00) 50 years after publication

& every 10 years thereafter to retain copyright

– Provide contact information

• U.S. Copyright Office

– Handles financial transactions

– Creates public database

Thank you!Denise Troll Covey

Principal Librarian for Special Projects

Carnegie Mellon

[email protected]

412 268 8599

mailto:[email protected]

unconditional copyright removing the camouflage denise troll covey principal librarian for special...

Documents