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April 1991

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Subject:
From:
Jeremy Butler <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 3 Apr 91 16:24:30 CST
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Here's the info on the Kinko's suit, courtesy Barbara Green...
 
It seems that several N.Y. publishers had brought suit against Kinko's for
copyright infringement, citing their "course packets," and naming several
professors from Columbia, NYU, and the New School in the suit (actually, I
don't know if the professors were really named, but I do know that one of
them was Robert Sklar, author of _Movie-Made America_, with whom I studied
at NYU).  Well, the publishers just won their suit, and Kinko's was ordered
to stop producing the packets and pay damages.  The following text was
posted on the local Brown system, and goes into more detail:
 
>From Chicago Tribune 3/30/91
>
>A federal judge has ruled that Kinkos Graphics Corp violated copyright
>laws by copying excerpts from books used in college courses and selling them
>to students.
>
>In a victory for book publishers, US District Judge Constance Baker Motley
>ordered Thursday that Kinko's, which has some 200 stores nationwide, mostly
>near college campuses, stop the practice and pay damages of $510,000 as well
>as attorney fees and costs.
>
>The suit was filed in Manhattan federal court by Basic Books, Inc, Harper &
>Row Publishers Inc., John Wiley & Sons...etc
>
>Ventura, CA-based Kinko admitted that it copied the excerpts without
>permission, compiled them into course "packets" and sold them to students.
>
>In this case, the packets were compiled based on orders placed by the
>professors at Columbia University, New York University, and the New School
>for Social Research as to what readings they needed for their courses.
>
>Kinko's then produced 300-400 page packets, including substantial portions
>of copyrighted books, at a cost of about $24 to the student.
>
>"Although Kinko's tries to impress this court with its purportedly altruistic
>motives, the facts show that Kinko's copying had the intended purpose of
>supplanting the copyright holders' commercially valuable right," the judge
>said.
>
>She pointed out that Kinko's provides incentives to professors who submit
>their course materials for copying.  Those who "get in their orders early"
>receive a 10% discount card and the company provides campus pickup and
>delivery.
>
>"The extent of its insistence that theirs are educational concerns and not
>profitmaking ones boggles the mind," the judge ruled.

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