Libraries say Supreme Court case could make lending foreign-made books illegal

If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the conviction of a Thai-born graduate student who allegedly made close to $1 million importing cheaply made foreign editions of textbooks and selling them to U.S. students on eBay, then academic libraries might not be allowed to lend certain books and electronic materials, according to library advocates who plan to file an amicus brief on the case today.

The Library Copyright Alliance, a consortium of three major library associations, argues that a lower court’s ruling in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Supap Kirtsaeng could make libraries liable for copyright infringement if they lend out library books and other materials that were “not lawfully manufactured in the United States” without purchasing expensive “lending licenses.” (Libraries, the alliance asserts, tend to have large numbers of foreign-made books in their collections.)

Such an outcome could give publishers greater leverage to dictate the terms under which patrons may access copyrighted works, according to Brandon Butler, director of public policy initiatives for the Association of Research Libraries and co-author of the amicus brief.

» via Inside Higher Ed