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In Lawsuit, Georgia State Asserts That Downloading Copyrighted Texts Is Fair Use
June 26, 2008
Andrea Foster
Chronicle of Higher Education
June 26, 2008
In a closely watched copyright-infringement lawsuit, Georgia State University fired back this week at its accusers, three academic publishers that say the institution invites students to illegally download and print readings from thousands of works. The university asserts that its online distribution of course material is permitted under copyright law's fair-use exemption.
Georgia State made its case in papers filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
The three publishers—Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Sage Publications—sued the university in federal court in April, arguing that course readings that professors and librarians disseminated online infringed publishers' copyrights.
The publishers are asking a judge to order Georgia State to stop distributing course material in that way.
The university admits that it was offering the material online to students through the following means: electronic reserves in the library, the Blackboard/WebCT Vista course-management system, department Web pages, and other Web sites. But the university says the practice is allowed under the fair-use doctrine of the Copyright Act.
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