Effective Ways to Promote and Model Respect for Copyright and Fair Use

Today librarians and other information professionals can hardly escape the conundrum of intellectual property law, especially copyright. From issues such as public domain, fair use, digitization, and e-media, the library finds its work immersed in copyright every day. Libraries represent the careful balance in copyright law: they serve both the economic and “use and access” purposes of copyright. Libraries are, therefore, economic engines of both copyright law and knowledge distribution. Do you need to develop an understanding of modern copyright as it fits into the mission of libraries? How does fair use affect both library staff and patrons? Drawing on case law, anecdotes, and his own research, attorney and librarian Kyle K. Courtney will address these questions and more in an informative and interactive session.

Kyle K. Courtney is the Copyright Advisor at Harvard University, working out of Harvard Library’s Office for Scholarly Communication. He works closely with Harvard University to establish a culture of shared understanding of copyright issues among Harvard staff, faculty, and students. His “Copyright First Responders” initiative is in its sixth year, and has spread beyond Harvard to reach libraries, archives, and cultural institutions in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, and Massachusetts. He presently teaches Cyberlaw: Privacy Ethics and Digital Rights as well as two sections of Legal Research for the first-year legal research and writing program at Harvard Law. In 2014, he helped launch Fair Use Week. He holds a J.D. with distinction in Intellectual Property Law and an MSLIS. He is a published author and a nationally recognized speaker on the topic of copyright, technology, libraries, and the law.

If any reasonable accommodation is needed to ensure equal access or participation, contact the Office of Library and Information Services at (401) 574-9300 not less than three (3) business days in advance of the meeting or program date. More advanced notice is highly advisable.