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MLA Position Statements and FAQs

Copyright and Fair Use Position Statement

To top of page MLA's Position

The Medical Library Association (MLA) believes that practitioners, educators, students, and other professionals in the biomedical sciences have the right to use literature as defined in the fair use clause of the federal copyright law. MLA supports the stated purpose of copyright to promote the public welfare through the advancement of knowledge [1].

To top of page Why MLA Supports This Position

Health sciences librarians play a primary role in providing both print and electronic biomedical resources to those in their health-related institutions. To fulfill their role and uphold their clients' rights, librarians must understand the copyright law and its implications for users. Under the law, a library's users typically have the right to make copies of articles or chapters for their own education or research without permission. This right is especially crucial in the health professions, where the use of biomedical information and literature supports patient care, education and research.

To top of page Basic Principles

  • MLA acknowledges that the copyright law was established to balance the rights of the author or owner of a work with the rights of users.
  • Because biomedical information and knowledge are vital to health care, MLA endorses and advocates the fair-use clause of the copyright law.
  • Because other organizations challenge the right of users to copy selected literature for their own education and research, MLA believes that health sciences librarians must actively educate users of their rights and obligations.

To top of page Background

Fair use

Congress codified fair use in section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows reasonable use of a work without permission for specified purposes, including scholarship, teaching, and research.

Factors constituting fair use

To promote the advancement of knowledge, the copyright law seeks to balance the rights of the author or owner of a work and the rights of users. Four factors determine what constitutes fair use:

  1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether it is for commercial or non-profit educational purposes
    MLA supports the provision of the statute which justifies certain uses, including photocopying, for the purposes of scholarship and research. Students or scientists may copy articles for their own use and librarians are permitted to make one copy of an article for a user upon a signed request adjoining the copyright statement. Before the photocopier existed, people took notes from books and journals by hand, considered a fair use at the time. MLA recognizes that the photocopier merely makes the process easier; it does not affect the inherent "fairness" of the use or the right of the user to copy material. MLA maintains that it is the librarian's responsibility to inform users of this right.
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work
    Legal consideration of this factor sometimes takes into account whether a work is published or non-published, and whether it is fact-based vs. non-fact-based. In the health sciences, librarians deal primarily with published, copyrighted materials (e.g., books and journals) which may be copied to support scholarship, teaching, research, and patient care. Unpublished works, such as personal correspondence and diaries, typically are not used to support these purposes in the health sciences.
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion to be copied as it relates to the work as a whole
    This factor typically does not allow a user or a librarian to copy a whole book or an entire issue of a journal, and a library typically may not make multiple copies, except for certain classroom uses. MLA encourages its members to work with their parent institutions to develop clear statements for users on the extent to which materials may be copied.
  4. The effect of the use on the potential market or value of the work
    The statute provides for consideration of how the use of a work affects the market for the work. Authors of fiction, drama, poetry, or popular nonfiction write so that their works will be read and bring the author a profit. The copyright law protects authors from those who would pirate their works, denying them fair income. Authors of scientific papers, however, do not receive income from their articles. They publish to inform their colleagues, announce discoveries, and often build their reputations by the quality and acceptance of their ideas and claims.

The Medical Library Association encourages librarians to utilize these criteria in discussion of rights and responsibilities of library users.

MLA works with other library associations and the legal system to address fair use rights which could potentially affect patient care by impairing the ability of health sciences librarians to collect and disseminate health care information to researchers, health care professionals, and scholars. In 1993, MLA and other members of the library community filed an amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court) brief in support of Texaco's appeal of a 1992 ruling that denied Texaco's researchers the right to copy scientific journal articles held by Texaco's library. MLA has also addressed the issue of fair use of printed electronic information as it relates to recent high-performance computing legislation and the National Information Infrastructure.

Fair use in the electronic media environment

The development of the National Information Infrastructure raises issues concerning the application of fair use principles to electronic information, which is not addressed in the Copyright Act of 1976. MLA works with the library community and the Copyright Office to address these issues. A separate position paper will articulate the association's position. During the interim, the association maintains the position that information published in electronic format should not be differentiated from print information. The association encourages its members to consider the four factors determining what constitutes fair use when evaluating the rights of users.

To top of page Conclusion

MLA maintains that the rights of users to copy materials for their own education and research is guaranteed under the fair-use clause of the copyright law. To defend this position, MLA continues to support and advocate fair-use practices and urges its members to uphold these rights by becoming familiar with the copyright law and by informing users of their rights and obligations.

To top of page References

  1. Patterson LR, Lindberg SW. The nature of copyright; a law of users' rights. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991:2.

To top of page Author

Prepared November 1994 by
Lucretia W. McClure, Rochester, NY, Copyright Referent
MLA's Governmental Relations Committee

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