We value intellectual property rights through the practice of the fair use limitation of federal copyright law.
In an academic environment, librarians want to support their patrons when it comes to copyright laws, but at the same time respect the intellectual property of the creator of the information. According to the American Library Association (ALA) Code of Ethics (2008), librarians should “respect intellectual property rights and advocate balance between the interests of information users and rights holders.” This balance is extremely important when it comes to academic law libraries. On the one hand, a law library should advocate for intellectual property rights as provided by law. Intellectual property is a popular subject for lawyers to study, and a law library would want to not only support the future lawyers with materials to use in their studies of intellectual property, but would want to practice the appropriate laws that govern intellectual property. On the other hand, being an academic library we would want to support the students and faculty through allowing them to access the intellectual property of others to further serve society.
Libraries mostly deal with the copyright type of intellectual property. A big help in managing the balance of copyright issues are the limitations that are placed on it. The most widely used limitation on copyright that has an impact on the education environment is the fair use limit on copyright. This limitation allows the academic law community “to make socially beneficial uses of copyrighted works that do not substantially interfere with the copyright holder’s ability to make a profit” (Fallis, 2009). The four factors of fair use that should be followed are: “(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work” (Cornell University Law School, 2009, United States Code). As long as the academic law librarian supports the members of the academic community with following these factors, the fair use limitation on copyright can be used.
Justification for this principle can be argued with a utilitarian perspective, which is a form of consequentialism. This theory is based on the idea to choose the action that has the best consequence for all affected (Fallis, 2009). Further, it is stressed that “an action is right if it produces the most happiness not for the person performing that action but for all parties affected by the action” (Spinello, 1995, p.19). This means that while an intellectual property rights holder would have happiness from control over the information they own, through placing limitations on the intellectual property rights means the most happiness would affect all parties. Society as a whole can benefit from access to the intellectual property of others.
This principle could come into conflict with Principle 1, because it has limitations on access to information. For example, often some databases will only allow so many users to access the information or even view full text from the database based on the copyrights of the authors. Since the library does not own the information, it could not be considered along with the first sale limitation on copyright. Thus, it is possible that the librarian could not provide unlimited access to information for everything.
A good example of a concrete application of this entire principle could occur when a student is writing an article for the law review. The student will need access to all sorts of information, especially other people’s articles in law journals or law reviews. The academic law librarian would want to provide access to what the student needs, as well as support the student through the use of the fair use limitation on copyright. By providing the student with the four factors that guide the fair use limitation, the librarian can advocate a balance between the rights of the copyright holder and the rights of the student to use the copyrighted information. This would benefit, not only the educational community, but society as a whole.