Dive Summary:
- After ruling for Georgia State University in all but 5 of 99 alleged violations resulting from its library e-reserve policies, U.S. District Court Judge Orinda Evans rejected a proposed injunction from three scholarly publishers Friday that would have imposed strenuous guidelines on professors wishing to make portions of certain copyrighted course readings available for free.
- The case shifted in Georgia State's favor this May after the judge ruled that the majority of alleged violations qualified for protection as educational "fair use," and the injunction would have placed a greater burden on professors to “investigate the availability of digital permissions before it may determine that a proposed use of an excerpt of a work is protected by the fair use doctrine.”
- Judge Evans cited four reasons for rejecting the injunction, including her rejection of the idea that a single standard could not apply to all possible cases and the unreasonableness of tasking public employees with policing the issue to the degree sought by the publishers.
From the article:
A U.S. District Court judge on Friday slapped down three scholarly publishers as they tried to salvage spoils from the wreckage of a four-year copyright lawsuit against Georgia State University. Judge Orinda Evans, who in May already ruled for the university in all but 5 of 99 alleged violations resulting from its library e-reserve policies, rejected a proposed injunction that would have imposed exacting guidelines on professors who wish to make portions of certain copyrighted course readings for free. The court also ordered the plaintiffs, who were backed by the Association for American ...