Library agreements, scanning materials AND protecting copyright

[clair...@gmail.com]

Visually impaired students are wanting texts in accessible format.
Our university library is nearly accepting the idea of scanning books
for blind users to access the texts electronically.

However they are worried about copyright protection and want to know
that students will use the texts only for themselves, not giving them
to others.

Do you have any examples of an agreement that the student will sign,
promising that they will not pass the materials to others, and saying
they will be responsible ... (or something like that) for any leaks of
material to others.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you,
Claire Ozel

Middle East Technical University,
Ankara, Turkey

[Georgios Kouroupetroglou]

Dear Claire,

The agreement with the student is not enough.

In our accessibility Unit for Students with Dissabilities (http://access.uoa.gr) we provide books in accessible PDF format (but also in other accessible formats) by adding an electronic signature as well as a password. This signature makes the electronic book unique. That means one (e.g. the publisher or the copyright protection authorities) can identify who was the disabled student who has passed it to others.

 

During the delivery of the book to the disabled student he/she signs an agreement (in two original copies) for the protection of the copyright. This agreement has a paragraph saying that: “I know that this copy has an electronic signature, making it unique. I understand that this electronic copy is protected under the copyright low and has to be used personally by me and only by me and that I will not give it to any other person. I fully understand that, in the case this book is found to the hands of or used by any other person, I shall have the whole legal responsibility against the relative lows”. The agreement includes the details of the book: author(s) name(s), title, publisher, year, etc. We send the one of original signed copies to the publisher. The publisher is also informed about the accessibility processing of this book and its final format (see next paragraph).

 

Moreover, you have to know the scanning a book and then using an OCR does not produce an accessible book. In general, an electronic book is not an accessible book. The electronic text of the book has to be manually processed to become accessible. For example, at least you have: a) to correct the errors of the OCR, b) to remove headers and footers, c) to produce an accessible  table of contents and an accessible index, d) to describe the figures, photos, etc in text, e) to re-write the mathematic or scientific symbols and formula in accessible format using MathML.

This processing adds an additional level of security for the copyright protection.

Kind regards,

Georgios

 

 

Professor Georgios Kouroupetroglou

University of Athens Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, Panepistimiopolis, Ilisia, GR-15784 Athens, Greece tel.: +30 2107275305 fax: +30 2106018677 ko...@di.uoa.gr