Publishers Sue over Electronic Course Packets
The ACRL blog points to this story in the New York Times, detailing how Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Sage Publications are suing university over use of electronic course packets.
The lawsuit, which may be the first of its kind, raises questions about digital rights, which are confronting many media companies, but also about core issues like the future of the business model for academic publishers.
As a “first of its kind” lawsuit, this is important and distressing news. As teachers, aren’t we supposed to scan a document and post it onto Stagweb, instead of making more paper “handouts” and using up more of the vanishing rainforest? What is more important, using digital communication to save paper and diminish our carbon footprint? Or charging students more for course materials (which they can’t afford) and thereby supporting the paper-using activities of publishers? This is an environmental question — we have to look for the common good.