Texaco, Inc., conducts research to develop new products and technology in the petroleum industry. As part of the research, Texaco employees routinely photocopy articles from scientific and medical journals without the permission of the copyright holders. The publishers of the journals brought a copyright infringement action against Texaco in a federal district court. The court ruled that the copying was not a fair use. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed this ruling "primarily because the dominant purpose of the use is 'archival'—to assemble a set of papers for future reference, thereby serving the same purpose for which additional subscriptions are normally sold, or … for which photocopying licenses may be obtained." 1. Do you agree with the court's decision that the copying was not a fair use? Why or why not? 2. Do you think that the law should impose a duty on every person to obtain permission to photocopy or reproduce any article under any circumstance? What would be some of the implications of such a duty for society? Discuss fully.
I agree that there was no Fair Use. Here's why: 1. the purpose
and character of the use, including whether such use is of a
commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
Texaco is a corporation, meaning that their copying was for a
commercial purpose.
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
Scientific and medical journals are really meant for the use of
scientists and doctors, and Texaco got extra value out of
them.
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to
the
copyrighted work as a whole;
Texaco copied 100% of the articles they found useful.
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of
the copyrighted work.
Copies of the work could have been sold to Texaco for archival
purposes if they hadn't decided to get them for free by infringing
copyright.
Lastly, because the articles were reprographically copied, there
was no question of that copying being transformative.
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Texaco, Inc., conducts research to develop new products and technology in the petroleum industry. As part...
Texaco, Inc., conducts research to develop new products and technology in the petroleum industry. As part of the research, Texaco employees routinely photocopy articles from scientific and medical journals without the permission of the copyright holders. The publishers of the journals brought a copyright infringement action against Texaco in a federal district court. The court ruled that the copying was not a fair use. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed this ruling "primarily because the dominant...