Normalizing Copyright in the Electronic Environment
11 Pages Posted: 18 Nov 2015 Last revised: 8 Nov 2017
Date Written: November 1, 2015
Abstract
This article is an update of an article written by Professor Ann Bartow in 2003 entitled Electrifying Copyright Norms and Making Cyberspace More Like a Book. In Electrifying Bartow examined the social norms applied when using copyrighted works in the analog world, she explains how social norms develop, coalesce, and become de facto rules of behavior. She proposed that, at the time the article was written, real world copyright norms were not making their way into cyberspace because copyright holders were using their own normative view to exercise control of works embodied in electronic formats. She focused on non-profit libraries in her article to examine how the aim of copyright law “[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts” would be harmed if established analog norms did not survive transition to cyberspace. The update briefly covers Bartow’s examination of social norms and focuses on how the final section of Bartow’s article reflects what has happened since it was written, and whether her projections have or have not come to fruition.
Keywords: copyright, library use, library, fair use, first sale doctrine, codification, librarianship
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