Iwasaki Library Blog

tried to return a DVD borrowed from our collection via interoffice mail. It never arrived, and when the Media Librarian told him he'd need to pay for a replacement he said okay, but he wanted to point out this was an "illegal dub of a bootleg tape".
Well! Imagine the horrified response of the Media Librarian who would NEVER allow an illegal dub of ANYTHING to defile the media collection!!!!
No, no, no, she corrected him. This DVD was a perfectly legal copy of a Umatic original, which the Media Librarian considers an "obsolete" format.
Note that: the "Media Librarian considers" . . .
This incident highlights the controversial, confusing, and shadowy nature of educational media use. Copyright law and court precedent have established a framework of limitation--but within that framework, there's lots of leeway for faculty, students, and administrators to put their own spin on the situation. Now the Society for Cinema and Media Studies is trying to clarify the situation.
In the meantime, what are the lessons learned from this incident?
1. never return Media Collection materials via interoffice mail.
2. the Media Librarian would never knowingly violate the existing copyright laws. It is just that she has trouble knowing exactly what they mean sometimes.