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autodata
hustlin
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2005-01-21, 05:44

Whether or not you pay taxes has absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever. Second, it's an issue of copyright and fair use, not stealing or theft.

I am an academic librarian. The librarian you talked to sounded pretty clueless, since part of his or her job is to explain what the limits of fair use are and why they have their policies. Saying that you would be 'expelled' is just rude bullshit, plain and simple.

With fair use, particularly for scholarship, there are few hard and fast rules. You could likely argue that what you are doing is covered under fair use, but if it went to court you would almost certainly lose. I don't know what all the laws are for music recordings, but they are handled differently than other materials. The library's policy is, of course, going to be that you can't, but it's also not really entirely the library's business what you are doing.

I'm of the school of thought that believes a university library should go far beyond just providing materials used in classes and that the patron's use of material should not be restricted by library staff unless it creates a burden (by volume, for instance) or otherwise limits the library's ability to serve other patrons.

Last edited by autodata : 2005-01-21 at 05:50.
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