Copyright Issues Faced by the Libraries

[Kankana B Badan]

Followings are the problems we the Librarians face in our day to day life. There are ambiguities in the Indian statute of copyright regarding certain cases. Therefore, Experts' suggestions are needed on the following points. Besides that if you are facing any other issue due to the copyright please share and make us aware as well.

Kindly assist me to sort out the followings

1. Will it be copyright infringement if we scan a book and upload it in the intranet for students for study purposes on high demand? 

 

 

2. If in case only limited copy of a Book is available then will it be possible to reproduce major portion of the said book for education purposes to the mass of the students in the University premises.

 

 

3. In case of ILL, if we transfer or send any digital copy (scanned copy of an article or any article from subscribed database) through email upon request from other Library, shall it be the violation of copyright? 

[Siddhartha Shankar Ray]

Dear Ms. Kankana Badan,

Thanks for your post.

I am replying  on the basis of your numbered queries:

Q1. As you know storing of copyrighted material in any form is infringement of copyright Act. Still, iIf you can make arrangement that the scanned copy can not be downloaded/printed and remain as "Read Only" material, I think, it will be acceptable on the ground of "Fair Use"

Q2.  Copying "Major Portion" of a book is infringement. At the most, you can copy 30% of a work.

Q3. Certainly you can. It will NOT be violation of copyright provided there is no monetary dealings.

I hope I could explain the issue.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

[Kankana B Badan]

Thank you so much sir for your valuable suggestions. I am agree to your suggestions no.1 and 3. But regarding point no. 2, there is ambiguity in indian copyright law about how much portion is replicable. However, Delhi University photocopy case has alowed to compile course packs of high cost books if its has limited copies available in a Library