Reply #11: Colleges are not acting in loco parentis. Colleges are not copyright police.

[nealmhughes]

And as for "forcing" universities to buy subscriptions, good luck with that one! The Chronicle will have its collective panties in such a wad that the RIAA and Congress won't know what hit them. Then if they really want to tick off a singularly evil collective, wait until an academic librarian gets involved. . . We may not find anything odd at a coworker keeping 17 rescue cats in a studio apt. and find Birkenstock sandals worn over khaki pants and an old school Izod Lacoste cardigan, but we can be vicious when crossed.

When setting up an E-Reserve system at a state university, my simple response to a question about the copyright status of various materials that the various instructors wanted uploaded: "I am not the copyright police. I give them the status of the latest law and interpretation. I follow the thumbrules: one chapter or less out of a monograph or anthology, they sign that they are following it. They scan it. I load it and give the students and the faculty member a password where only they can have access to it. Think of it as another mode of xeroxing."

Put up the signs. Then the onus is upon the individual and not the institution to follow the law and its interpretations.