---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 17:27:55 +0100
From: Simone JEROME <sjerome@ULG.AC.BE>
Subject: Re: Donations of older personal copies (Barbara Rehkop)

A 09:52 26/10/01 -0400, vous avez écrit :
>Would somebody please speak to copyright issues in accepting donations?
>We have been advised (in a class on copyright) that since individuals did
>not pay the (greater) library price for their subscription, we should not
>make donated copies available to the public.

Just two questions.
First, apart for the journals of professional societies which I understand
are part of a membership, is the discriminatory rate institutional/individual
legal for a commercial publication ? Is the individual rate not equivalent
to dumping as the operational costs of publishing are covered by
institutional subscriptions only and the product is exactely the same, sold
at the same time
and not in extra sales ?

Second, I do not understand what the fact to offer an issue for reading
in a library room not for profit has to do with copyright. Copyright begins
with the copy, had the journal been bought or donated. I think that the
issue here is not copyright but contract law, no ? It is obvious for
societies journals where as a society's member, you agree to its rules and
among them
not to give it to the library at least for a period of time (five years for
ACS for instance). In the case of a commercial journal, it depends on the
conditions of the vendor. But as journals contain more or less transient
information, is it reasonnable to extend the vendor rights to eternity ?

Can specialists comment on what I mean only remarks of common sense ?

Thank you.

Simone JEROME, Librarian
University of Liege
Institute of Chemistry B6
4000 Sart Tilman (Liege 1)
BELGIUM

email address : sjerome@ulg.ac.be
URL : http://www.ulg.ac.be/libnet/ud18.htm