Date:         Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:51:11 -0700
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         Karl Miller <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: copyright and music libraries
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--- On Mon, 10/20/08, Gary R. Boye <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

ARCS members with some experience in libraries from the 1980s,

(I've tried this on the Music Library Association list without much 
success, so I thought I'd try it here:) I remember that, sometime when I 
was an undergraduate in the 1980s, music libraries around the country 
began disabling their phonograph/cassette systems so that users could 
not copy records in the library. It was my understanding that this 
procedure helped alleviate liability on the library's part for what 
could be construed as infringement of the record companies' product.

Was this ever stated as a general interpretation of copyright or a 
guideline? Why were libraries doing this??


Having been in charge of such a facility back in \the 1980s... Our reading of the copyrights was such that a library could not be held liable for having an unattended dubbing facility available to the public. The rationale was similar to the notion that allows a library to have an unattended photocopy machine available to the public. In short, there could be legitimate uses for such a dubbing facility, just as one could make legitimate use of a photocopy facility. At that time, parts of our collection were not available to be duplicated. An example being the concert performances of the Houston Symphony, a collection which came along with deposit agreement which restricted access...much to my frustration. Of course the major questions I had to address at that time concerned the library's preparation of recorded anthologies to support the teachingof music literature classes. When I left that operation some ten years ago, the dubbing station was still
 in operation. However, I have no idea what has happened since that time. As with any duplicating facility a notice of copyright restrictions had to be posted. Karl