Dive Summary:
- In May, a federal judge ruled that Georgia State, with few exceptions, did not violate publishers' copyrights with its library e-reserves.
- In the time since, the U.S. Justice Department filed a brief requesting an extension on the amount of time available to file on the publishers' appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit--stunning and upsetting librarians, given the Obama administration's support for technology as an educational tool and the fact that two of the three publishers are foreign publishing giants.
- Both parties believe the Justice Department might back the publishers, and Washington lawyer Jonathan Band suspects the Copyright Office may have asked the department to file an amicus brief on the publishers' behalf.
From the article:
Why would the U.S. Justice Department want to get involved in the appeal by publishers of a landmark ruling by a federal judge on the issue of e-reserves in college and university libraries? That's the question being asked by many observers -- and more than a few on the college library side of the debate are upset that the Obama administration would even consider getting involved on behalf of the publishers. ...