Copyright and Document Services

General information on library copying as it relates to document services.

Notice: Warning Concerning Copyright Restrictions

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies and other reproductions of copyrighted materials.

Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.

Copyright Law and Library Copying

The full text of the law can be found in the United States Code in the section entitled Title 17 - Copyrights. Copyright owners are assigned exclusive rights to their works, including the right to reproduce them. The law defines limits on these exclusive rights that allow others to make copies of copyrighted works. People engaged in teaching and research are granted certain reproduction rights in sect. 107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use.

Libraries are permitted to obtain copies of copyrighted works under conditions spelled out in sect. 108. Basically, a library may not receive copies in "such aggregate quantities as to substitute for a subscription to or purchase of such work." Just how much copying would violate this provision is not defined by law.

If you would like to know more about copyright and the law, consult the Welch Library's Intellectual Property page.

Photocopies of Journal Articles

The copyright law does not provide a quantitative definition of how many photocopies from a journal can be received by a library for interlibrary loan. The National Commission on new Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) in 1978 issued guidelines to help libraries comply with the copyright law. The Welch Medical Library adheres to the CONTU guidelines.

For a given periodical title within a given year, the library is allowed, under the guidelines, to obtain an institutional total of 5 photocopies of articles published within the past 5 years from the current year. The sixth time we are asked to get an article, we must look at the following alternatives:

1. Pay a royalty to the owner of the copyright for each photocopy obtained
2. Purchase an original copy of the work or attempt to borrow the entire work (usually impossible)
3. Decline to fill your request (sometimes necessary).
4. Ask you to wait for a new calendar year when we begin our count of 5 over again.

Royalty Payments

The only practical way to get a copy of a journal article quickly is to get a copy from another library and pay a royalty fee to the copyright owner, usually the publisher of the journal. Most often, we make these payments through the Copyright Clearance Center. For journals not registered with the Copyright Clearance Center, we try to obtain a copy through commercial document providers or we try to identify the publisher and write for permission. Commercial suppliers have their own arrangements for paying royalties to the appropriate parties. At the moment, all costs associated with interlibrary borrowing are subsidized by Johns Hopkins, including royalty payments up to $25. Royalties of more than $25 are charged back to the customer.