REPRODUCTION BY LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES

Senate bill

Section 108 of the Senate bill dealt with a variety of situations involving photocopying and other forms of reproduction by libraries and archives.  It specified the conditions under which single copies of copyrighted material can be noncommercially reproduced and distributed, but made clear that the privileges of a library or archives under the section do not apply where the reproduction or distribution is of multiple copies or is “systematic.”  Under subsection (f), the section was not to be construed as limiting the reproduction and distribution, by a library or archive meeting the basic criteria of the section, of a limited number of copies and excerpts of an audiovisual news program.

House bill

The House bill amended section 108 to make clear that, in cases involving interlibrary arrangements for the exchange of photocopies, the activity would not be considered “systematic” as long as the library or archives receiving the reproductions for distribution does not do so in such aggregate quantities as to substitute for a subscription to or purchase of the work.  A new subsection (i) directed the Register of Copyrights, by the end of 1982 and at five-year intervals thereafter, to report on the practical success of the section in balancing the various interests, and to make recommendations for any needed changes.  With respect to audiovisual news programs, the House bill limited the scope of the distribution privilege confirmed by section 108 (f) (3) to cases where the distribution takes the form of a loan.

b.  Conference Report:  Conference Committee Discussion of CONTU
   Guidelines on Photocopying and Interlibrary Arrangements

Conference substitute

The conference substitute adopts the provisions of section 108 as amended by the House bill.  In doing so, the conferees have noted two letters dated September 22, 1976, sent respectively to John L. McClellan, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, and to Robert W. Kastenmeier, Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice.  The letters, from the Chairman of the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU), Stanley H. Fuld, transmitted a document consisting of “guidelines interpreting the provision in subsection 108 (g) (2) of S. 22, as approved by the House Committee on the Judiciary.”  Chairman Fuld’s letters explain that, following lengthy consultations with the parties concerned, the Commission adopted these guidelines as fair and workable and with the hope that the conferees on S. 22 may find that they merit inclusion in the conference report.  The letters add that, although time did not permit securing signatures of the representatives of the principal library organizations or of the organizations representing publishers and authors on these guidelines, the Commission had received oral assurances from these representatives that the guidelines are acceptable to their organizations.