Background: The evolution in digital technologies has had an enormous impact on traditional copyright notions. Works in digital form have uniform characteristics and these works can be copied, distributed and stored with ease. Objectives: The focus of this article was how to attain a balance between the need to promote access to works and…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") focuses on current and emerging topics that are strategically important to research libraries. The articles explore issues, share information, pose critical questions, and provide examples. This issue includes the following articles: (1) Special Issue on Copyright (Prudence S. Adler); (2) Fair…

When Starwood Hotels charged Hilton Hotels with industrial espionage, the case hinged on an employment agreement that two executives had violated. The rhetoric of the employment agreement contrasted greatly with that of the corporation's own code of business conduct. Whereas the private agreement stressed narrow self-interest, the public code…

The centering processes of geographic information system (GIS) development at the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was an extension of past cartographic encounters with American Indians through the central control of geospatial technologies, uneven development of geographic information resources, and extension of technically dependent…

Reviews recent legal developments in information policy related to digital information, particularly on the Internet. Focuses on trends in which information ownership is encroaching on public uses of information or on public information space, that is, control and ownership of information versus public access to and use of information. (Contains…

For some, it seems that the dream of a perfect research machine is almost within reach. Google announced late last year that it would digitize millions of bound books, making available online the full text of public-domain books and excerpts from works still in copyright. Thrilling and dazzling as the potential for research and distribution…

Introduction: In 1999-2000, a Norwegian youth cracked a DVD-access code and published a decryption program on the Internet. He was sued by the US DVD Copy Control Association (DVD-CCA) and the Norwegian Motion Picture Association (MAP), allies of the US Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), arrested by Norwegian police and charged with…

This paper describes the creation of a new library facility for Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, one designed ready to accommodate an infrastructure that would support the new technologies of the electronic information environment. Wiring and fiber-optic schemes are outlined briefly. The document is formatted as a script for…

Two articles consider different aspects of the issue of protecting intellectual property rights. The first discusses the effects of a recent court ruling on information centers in the for-profit sector, focusing on fair use under the Copyright Act of 1976; and the second examines moral and economic issues in electronic information dissemination.…

The review of court cases decided in 1990 relating to higher education summarizes litigation concerning institutional powers, First Amendment law, search and seizure on campus, tort liability, institutional contracts, immunities, access to records, funding for institutions and students, employment practices, academic and disciplinary decisions,…