Further to this, I had a call from theHalifax Herald last week telling me that the Herald Archives can no longer be offered to subscribers for that very reason. Unless the Herald can prove ownership of the article/picture they cannot sell it via their service. As of July 31, 2001 the service will be discontinued. According to Debbie Reid, there will be an inhouse database for research but it cannot be made available to the "public".

I agree Peter, this will have great implications for cost. I am curious to see what will happen. Ebsco is planning on rolling out a Canadian reference database that will cover many, many Cdn newspapers and mags (you may have heard about it at APLA). Now I am wondering if the price they had quoted is going to change to anticipate further copyright implications on this side of the border.

Regards,

Lynn Duquette

Lynn Duquette
Librarian
Department of Education
(902) 424-5264


>>> Peter Webster <[log in to unmask]> 06/29/01 09:14AM >>>
By a 7-2 majority (Stevens and Breyer dissenting), the U.S. Supreme
Court upheld a September 1999 unanimous ruling by the U.S. Court of
Appeals, 2nd Circuit, which found that The New York Times and other
publishers had committed copyright infringement when they resold
freelance newspaper and magazine articles, via electronic databases such
as LexisNexis, without asking permission or making additional payments
to the original authors.

See http://www.nwu.org/tvt/vichome.htm for additional details.

Another issue where libraries will have to decide whether to support
writers intellectual property rights, or to support publishers efforts
to keep the cost of content down.
--
Peter Webster, Head of Information Systems
Patrick Power Library
Saint Mary's University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 3C3

Ph. (902) 420-5507 Fx. (902) 420-5561