Libraries and Fair Use

Simon Chester at Slaw​.ca has an excel­lent arti­cle up about World Book and Copyright Day. Of par­tic­u­lar impor­tance, I think, is the point the fair use (an excep­tion to the reg­u­lar restric­tions on use pro­vided for under copy­right law):

For libraries, and the peo­ple who use libraries, it is the excep­tions and lim­i­ta­tions to the legal pro­tec­tions granted to right­sh­old­ers that pro­vide the basic mech­a­nism for access to copy­righted con­tent. “The role of librar­i­ans is to pro­tect and pro­mote access to knowl­edge and learn­ing mate­ri­als”, said Rilwanu Abdulsalami, Deputy University Librarian at Kaduna State University in Nigeria. “One of the key ways to achieve this is through well designed excep­tions and lim­i­ta­tions. Where the law is inad­e­quate and needs to be changed, we will advo­cate for that change.”

I rec­om­mend you read the whole post.