what are the laws on photocopying books?

[Semidevil]

most of you being college students, I"m sure you guys all share the pain. But exactly, what are the laws on photocopying textbooks. If I go to a copyshop, and have them copy it for me, I think they will say something like "we are only able to copy 1/3 of it" or some crap because of the copyright laws.

So, what if I do it all myself? Will they actually go and stop me? can I do 1/2 today, 1/2 tommorow? what if I let them copy 1/3, and I copy the rest myself?

So what are my options and teh best way to do this?

 

[sniperruff]

copy it yourself. nobody will care.

oops i mean IT IS ILLEGAL STOP IT!

 

[DAGTA]

It is illegal to copy any copyright material, such as a textbook. I had ONE professor that finally grew some backbone and told the foreign students (which were most of the students photocopying books) that he would have them deported if he caught them violating the law. That made me smile.

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: DAGTA
It is illegal to copy any copyright material, such as a textbook. I had ONE professor that finally grew some backbone and told the foreign students (which were most of the students photocopying books) that he would have them deported if he caught them violating the law. That made me smile.

Eh? I know tons of students that do that because they can't afford to pay 80 bucks for a book that'll be obsolete and the bookstore will give them 10 bucks for it.

 

[Semidevil]

well, what I"m kind of curious about is, do the workers at the copy shop actually tell you to stop if they see you doing it? So If I go to a shop, and just start xeroxing books, are the workers told to check and crap?


I dont want to go there, and then be told to stop..........

 

[axelfox]

Just go to a shady copy shop

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Originally posted by: DAGTA
It is illegal to copy any copyright material, such as a textbook. I had ONE professor that finally grew some backbone and told the foreign students (which were most of the students photocopying books) that he would have them deported if he caught them violating the law. That made me smile.

Eh? I know tons of students that do that because they can't afford to pay 80 bucks for a book that'll be obsolete and the bookstore will give them 10 bucks for it.

what are they're names and what uni?

I'd like to report them.

something about "copyright" means "must have rights to copy"

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: axelfox
Just go to a shady copy shop

there's the idea.

I think it's up to the employees of the place to care enough to stop you. They just don't want to be involved in your illegal activity... so either they'll pretend they didn't know or they'll be strict about it.

 

[DrPizza]

Bah! You don't have to copy the entire book... just do a little bit as you go.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Bah! You don't have to copy the entire book... just do a little bit as you go.

ummm... he has to return it to get his cash back..

 

[phreakah]

i do it all the time at officemax/copymax

just copy whatever is on the syllabus

 

[ronald33]

Haven't you people heard of "Fair Use"?

The main part of that exclusion on the Copyright Law states that "copying a work is Fair Use if it does not materially impact the anticipated market for the work,etc." If the book is "orphaned"
(out-of-print) there IS no market anymore.

So I could legally copy an entire book if it were only for my personal,private use,etc.

 

[Ns1]

another l33t spammer. great.

 

[Mark R]

Haven't you people heard of "Fair Use"?

So I could legally copy an entire book if it were only for my personal,private use,etc.

No. Personal use isn't necessarily fair use. Fair use means that the copy cannot substitute for the real thing (e.g. it is only a very small portion of the complete thing - a few pages, or is stripped of detail, etc.)

Most libraries and schools will have a photocopying licence. This permits the school or library, or its users, to make limited copies of the books that they hold, over and above "fair use". Typical licence terms would be something like: a student is permitted to make a single copy of up to 1 chapter of a book, for their own personal use. Most licences will require that the copy be recorded in a log, stating the name of the person for whom the copy is to be made, the name of the book, and which pages have been copied. This is to permit auditing, so that a violation (e.g. you photocopy chapter 1 on Monday, and come back on Tuesday to copy chapter 2) can be detected.

If a book is out of print, you still are not permitted to copy the entire thing, as that would not be fair use - there is a still a copyright holder (albeit they may be difficult to trace and uncooperative) that is entitled to their rights. For highly desirable out-of-print books, the second-hand prices can be astronomical. I've seen a number of very specialist textbooks, now out of print, which go for 10x their new cost - simply because of the clarity of their writing which has yet to be matched by more recent competitors.