In this article, the author discusses a mutilation that he has encountered involving Google Book Search. That massive text-digitization project, working in collaboration with several of the world's most important library collections, has now made available, in both PDF and text view, tens of thousands of 19th-century titles while it awaits the…

A discussion of faculty photocopying of copyrighted course materials criticizes the overuse of the practice, outlines the fair-use provisions of the federal law, and reviews the results of a 1983 lawsuit involving New York University. (MSE)

A six-month-old court ruling requires teachers to seek permission to reproduce every piece of work in photocopied college course anthologies. The ruling has delayed production of the anthologies, increased their cost, left publishers and professors scrambling to deal with copyright permissions, and prompted more use of textbook and library…

The unauthorized reproduction of printed material in electronic form, particularly using optical scanning, is rising and would be impossible to monitor. The publishing industry is trying to establish the extent of the trend and determine how to cope with the copyright problems it raises. (MSE)

A lawsuit against Kinko's, a nationwide chain of photocopying stores, is expected to be filed soon. The target of the lawsuit is photocopied anthologies used by professors to supplement textbooks or to substitute for them altogether. There is evidence that anthologies have been produced without permission of copyright owners. (MLW)

Publishers are suing Kinko's Graphics Corporation for copyright violation, claiming that they illegally reproduced "substantial portions" of 12 books and included them in anthologies made for professors at Columbia University, the New School for Social Research, and New York University. Off campus copy shops represent a major threat to…

A federal court ruled that Kinko's Graphics Corporation, a national chain of photocopying stores, infringed on publishers' copyrights by reproducing excerpts from books and selling them in anthologies for college students. The firm was judged to be engaged in the publishing business and thus not covered under the law's provision of fair use for…

Desktop publishing techniques are bringing control over institutional newsletters, catalogues, brochures, and many other print materials directly to the author's office. The technology also has the potential for integrating campus information systems and saving much time and money. (MSE)

A federal appeals court decision ruled in favor of three publishers who had sued the owner of a small copy-shop business for copyright infringement in producing custom-made anthologies for college courses. However, a divided court could not determine willful violation of the law, vacating damages awarded in lower court. Debate over fair use…