The US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia recently handed down a ruling on injunctive and declaratory relief in the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by academic publishers against Georgia State University. According to a statement from the publisher plaintiffs the District Court’s decision is marred by a number of serious legal errors.
The fair use exception cannot be stretched beyond recognition simply because course materials are delivered in a digital format by an educational institution, the statement noted. Further, it states that the ruling excuses copyright violations by GSU and endorses unauthorised copying and distribution of academic works well beyond what the law allows and what universities across the country consider reasonable. The decision devalues academic scholarship by treating such work as ‘factual’ compilations.
According to the statement, this case was brought reluctantly to curb practices that threaten publishing activities vital to institutions of higher education. Then, as of now, the plaintiff publishers are of the academy — two are themselves departments of universities. As with the initial decision to bring suit, the decision regarding an appeal will be based on a considered assessment that takes into account the extent to which this ruling, which the plaintiff publishers believe to be legally vulnerable on multiple grounds, endangers the creation and dissemination of high-quality academic work.
