AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION, ET AL.,
Plaintiffs-Counterclaim- Defendants-Appellees, v. TEXACO INC.,
Defendant-Counterclaim- Plaintiff-Appellant. IN RE TEXACO INC., ET AL.,
Reorganized Debtors. ACADEMIC PRESS, INC., ET AL., Petitioners-Appellees, v.
TEXACO INC., Respondent-Appellant.
Docket No. 92-9341
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND
CIRCUIT
60 F.3d 913; 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 40786; 35 U.S.P.Q.2D
(BNA) 1513; Copy. L. Rep. (CCH) P27,417; 144 A.L.R. Fed. 745
May 20, 1993, Argued
October 28, 1994, DecidedSUBSEQUENT HISTORY: [**1] Further Amended July 17,
1995.
PRIOR HISTORY: Interlocutory appeal from
the July 23, 1992, order of the United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York (Pierre N. Leval, Judge) holding, after a limited-issue
bench trial, that the photocopying of eight articles from the Journal of
Catalysis for use by one of Texaco's researchers was not fair use. 802 F. Supp.
1.
Original Opinion Previously Reported at: 1994
U.S. App. LEXIS 30437.
DISPOSITION: Affirmed.
COUNSEL: Thomas A. Smart, New York, N.Y. (Milton J.
Schubin, Michael Malina, Richard A. De Sevo, Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays &
Handler, New York, N.Y.; Joseph P. Foley, Texaco, Inc. White Plains, N.Y., on
the brief), for appellant.
Stephen Rackow Kaye,
New York, N.Y. (Jon A. Baumgarten, James F. Parver, Christopher A. Meyer, Karen
E. Clarke, Susan L. Hochman, Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn, New York,
N.Y., on the brief), for appellees.
(Susan G.
Braden, Rueben B. Robertson, Ingersoll and Bloch, Wash., D.C., submitted a brief
for amicus curiae Amer. Library Ass'n).
(Ritchie
T. Thomas, James V. Dick, Susan Neuberger Weller, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey,
Wash., D.C., submitted a brief for amici curiae Ass'n of Research Libraries,
[**2] Amer. Ass'n of Law Libraries, Special Libraries Ass'n, Medical
Library Ass'n, Amer. Council of Learned Societies, Nat'l Humanities Alliance,
and Ass'n of Academic Health Sciences Library Directors).
(Lawrence E. Abelman, Jeffrey A. Schwab, Norman S. Beier, Nancy J.
Mertzel, Abelman, Frayne & Schwab, New York, N.Y., submitted a brief for
amici curiae Amer. Automobile Manufacturers Ass'n and Chemical Manufacturers
Ass'n).
JUDGES: Before: NEWMAN, Chief Judge, *
WINTER and JACOBS, Circuit Judges. Judge Jacobs dissents with a separate
opinion.
* Chief Judge Newman replaced the Honorable
Charles E. Stewart, Jr., of the District Court for the Southern District of New
York, sitting by designation, who recused himself after oral argument.
OPINIONBY: JON O. NEWMAN
OPINION: [*914] JON O. NEWMAN, Chief Judge:
This interlocutory appeal presents the issue of whether,
under the particular circumstances of this case, the fair use defense to
copyright infringement applies to the photocopying of articles in a scientific
journal. This issue arises on the appeal of defendant Texaco Inc. from the July
23, 1992, order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of
New York (Pierre N. Leval, [**3] Judge) holding, after a
limited-issue bench trial, that the photocopying of eight articles from the
Journal of Catalysis for use by one of Texaco's researchers was not fair use.
See American Geophysical Union v. Texaco Inc., 802 F. Supp. 1 (S.D.N.Y. 1992).
Though not for precisely the same reasons, we agree with the District Court's
conclusion that this particular copying was not fair use and therefore
affirm.
Background
The
District Court Proceedings. Plaintiffs American Geophysical Union and 82 other
publishers of scientific and technical journals (the "publishers") brought a
class action claiming that Texaco's unauthorized photocopying of articles from
their journals constituted copyright infringement. Among other defenses, Texaco
claimed that its copying was fair use under section 107 of the Copyright
[*915] Act, 17 U.S.C. § 107 (1988). Since it appeared likely that
the litigation could be resolved once the fair use defense was adjudicated, the
parties agreed that an initial trial should be limited to whether Texaco's
copying was fair use, and further agreed that this issue would be submitted for
decision on a written record.
Although Texaco employs
400 to 500 research [**4] scientists, of whom all or most presumably
photocopy scientific journal articles to support their Texaco research, the
parties stipulated -- in order to spare the enormous expense of exploring the
photocopying practices of each of them -- that one scientist would be chosen at
random as the representative of the entire group. The scientist chosen was Dr.
Donald H. Chickering, II, a scientist at Texaco's research center in Beacon, New
York. For consideration at trial, the publishers selected from Chickering's
files photocopies of eight particular articles from the Journal of Catalysis.
In a comprehensive opinion, reported at 802 F. Supp. 1,
the District Court considered the statutory fair use factors identified in
section 107, weighed other equitable considerations, and held that Texaco's
photocopying, as represented by Chickering's copying of these eight articles did
not constitute fair use. The District Court certified its ruling for
interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) (1988).
Essential Facts. Employing between 400 and 500 researchers nationwide,
Texaco conducts considerable scientific research seeking to develop new products
and technology primarily to improve [**5] its commercial performance
in the petroleum industry. As part of its substantial expenditures in support of
research activities at its Beacon facility, Texaco subscribes to many scientific
and technical journals and maintains a sizable library with these materials.
Among the periodicals that Texaco receives at its Beacon research facility is
the Journal of Catalysis ("Catalysis"), a monthly publication produced by
Academic Press, Inc., a major publisher of scholarly journals and one of the
plaintiffs in this litigation. Texaco had initially purchased one subscription
to Catalysis for its Beacon facility, and increased its total subscriptions to
two in 1983. Since 1988, Texaco has maintained three subscriptions to
Catalysis.
Each issue of Catalysis contains articles,
notes, and letters (collectively "articles"), ranging in length from two to
twenty pages. All of the articles are received by the journal's editors through
unsolicited submission by various authors. Authors are informed that they must
transfer the copyright in their writings to Academic Press if one of their
articles is accepted for publication, and no form of money payment is ever
provided to authors [**6] whose works are published. Academic Press
typically owns the copyright for each individual article published in Catalysis,
and every issue of the journal includes a general statement that no part of the
publication is to be reproduced without permission from the copyright owner. The
average monthly issue of Catalysis runs approximately 200 pages and comprises 20
to 25 articles.
Chickering, a chemical engineer at the
Beacon research facility, has worked for Texaco since 1981 conducting research
in the field of catalysis, which concerns changes in the rates of chemical
reactions. To keep abreast of developments in his field, Chickering must review
works published in various scientific and technical journals related to his area
of research. Texaco assists in this endeavor by having its library circulate
current issues of relevant journals to Chickering when he places his name on the
appropriate routing list.
The copies of the eight
articles from Catalysis found in Chickering's files that the parties have made
the exclusive focus of the fair use trial were photocopied in their entirety by
Chickering or by other Texaco employees at Chickering's request. Chickering
apparently [**7] believed that the material and data found within
these articles would facilitate his current or future professional research. The
evidence developed at trial indicated that Chickering did not generally use the
Catalysis articles in his research immediately upon copying, but placed the
photocopied articles in his files to have them available for later reference as
needed. Chickering became aware of six of the photocopied articles when the
original issues of Catalysis containing the articles were circulated to him. He
learned [*916] of the other two articles upon seeing a reference to
them in another published article. As it turned out, Chickering did not have
occasion to make use of five of the articles that were copied.
Discussion
I. The Nature of the Dispute
The parties and many of the amici curiae have approached
this case as if it concerns the broad issue of whether photocopying of
scientific articles is fair use, or at least the only slightly more limited
issue of whether photocopying of such articles is fair use when undertaken by a
research scientist engaged in his own research. Such broad issues are not before
us. Rather, we consider whether Texaco's photocopying by [**8] 400 or
500 scientists, as represented by Chickering's example, is a fair use. This
includes the question whether such institutional, systematic copying increases
the number of copies available to scientists while avoiding the necessity of
paying for license fees or for additional subscriptions. We do not deal with the
question of copying by an individual, for personal use in research or otherwise
(not for resale), recognizing that under the fair use doctrine or the de minimis
doctrine, such a practice by an individual might well not constitute an
infringement. In other words, our opinion does not decide the case that would
arise if Chickering were a professor or an independent scientist engaged in
copying and creating files for independent research, as opposed to being
employed by an institution in the pursuit of his research on the institution's
behalf.
Fair use is a doctrine the application of which
always depends on consideration of the precise facts at hand, see Campbell v.
Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 127 L. Ed. 2d 500, 114 S. Ct. 1164, 1170 (1994); Harper
& Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539, 549, 85 L. Ed.
2d 588, 105 S. Ct. 2218 (1985); Wright v. Warner Books, Inc., 953 F.2d 731, 740
(2d Cir. [**9] 1991); H.R. Rep. No. 1476, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 65-66
(1976) ("no generally applicable definition [of fair use] is possible, and each
case raising the question must be decided on its own facts"), and in this case
the parties have helpfully circumscribed the scope of the issue to be decided by
tendering for the District Court's decision the facts concerning the copying of
eight particular articles. Our concern is whether the copying of these eight
articles, as representative of the systematic copying that Texaco encouraged,
was properly determined not to be fair use. Thus, the many background details
stressed by each side are of only limited relevance in resolving this specific
case. n1
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Footnotes - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - -
n1 Texaco, for
example, uses a significant portion of its initial brief to expound on
photocopying activities in various industries. Similarly, a large part of the
publishers' statement of facts is devoted to a broad discussion of Texaco's
photocopying practices, the social importance of academic and scientific
journals, and the economics of journal publication and photocopying. These and
other details presented by the parties are discussed in the District Court's
opinion, 802 F. Supp. at 4-9.
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- - - - - - - - - End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [**10]
A. Fair Use and Photocopying
We
consider initially the doctrine of fair use and its application to photocopying
of documents. Seeking "to motivate the creative activity of authors . . . by the
provision of a special reward," Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City
Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 429, 78 L. Ed. 2d 574, 104 S. Ct. 774 (1984),
copyright law grants certain exclusive rights in original works to authors, see
17 U.S.C. §§ 102(a), 106, 201(a). However, the fair use doctrine "tempers the
protection of copyright by allowing . . . [the] use [of] a limited amount of
copyrighted material under some circumstances." Twin Peaks Productions, Inc. v.
Publications International, Ltd., 996 F.2d 1366, 1373 (2d Cir. 1993).
Traditionally conceived as based on authors' implied consent to reasonable uses
of their works, see Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 549-50, or on an exception to
authors' monopoly privileges needed in order to fulfill copyright's purpose to
promote the arts and sciences, see Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at 1169, the fair use
doctrine has a lengthy and rich common-law history, see William F. Patry, The
Fair Use Privilege in Copyright Law 1-63 (1985) [hereinafter Patry, The Fair
[**11] Use [*917] Privilege], and is now codified in
section 107 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 107. n2
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n2 In full, 17 U.S.C. § 107 reads:
§ 107. Limitation on exclusive rights: Fair Use
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and
106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in
copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for
purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including
multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an
infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any
particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include --
(1) the purpose and character of the
use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit
educational purposes;
(2) the nature of
copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the
portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the
potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself
bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the
above factors.
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- End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [**12]
As with the development of other easy and accessible means of
mechanical reproduction of documents, the invention and widespread availability
of photocopying technology threatens to disrupt the delicate balances
established by the Copyright Act. See 3 Melville B. Nimmer & David Nimmer,
Nimmer on Copyright § 13.05[E][1], at 13-225 to 13-226 (1994) [hereinafter
Nimmer on Copyright] (noting that "unrestricted photocopying practices could
largely undercut the entire law of copyright"); see also Sony, 464 U.S. at
467-68 n.16 (Blackmun, J., dissenting) (recognizing that the "advent of
inexpensive and readily available copying machines . . . has changed the
dimensions" of the legal issues concerning the practice of making personal
copies of copyrighted materials). As a leading commentator astutely notes, the
advent of modern photocopying technology creates a pressing need for the law "to
strike an appropriate balance between the authors' interest in preserving the
integrity of copyright, and the public's right to enjoy the benefits that
photocopying technology offers." 3 Nimmer on Copyright § 13.05[E][1], at
13-226.
Indeed, if the issue were open, we
would [**13] seriously question whether the fair use analysis that
has developed with respect to works of authorship alleged to use portions of
copyrighted material is precisely applicable to copies produced by mechanical
means. The traditional fair use analysis, now codified in section 107, developed
in an effort to adjust the competing interests of authors -- the author of the
original copyrighted work and the author of the secondary work that "copies" a
portion of the original work in the course of producing what is claimed to be a
new work. Mechanical "copying" of an entire document, made readily feasible and
economical by the advent of xerography, see SCM Corp. v. Xerox Corp., 463 F.
Supp. 983, 991-94 (D. Conn. 1978), aff'd, 645 F.2d 1195 (2d Cir. 1981), cert.
denied, 455 U.S. 1016, 72 L. Ed. 2d 132, 102 S. Ct. 1708 (1982), is obviously an
activity entirely different from creating a work of authorship. Whatever social
utility copying of this sort achieves, it is not concerned with creative
authorship.
Though we have been instructed to defer to
Congress "when major technological innovations alter the market for copyrighted
materials," Sony, 464 U.S. at 431, Congress has thus far provided scant guidance
for resolving [**14] fair use issues involving photocopying,
legislating specifically only as to library copying, see 17 U.S.C. § 108, and
providing indirect advice concerning classroom copying. n3 See generally 3
Nimmer on Copyright § 13.05[E]. However, we learn from the Supreme Court's
consideration of copying achieved by use of a videotape recorder that mechanical
copying is to be assessed for fair use purposes under the traditional mode of
analysis, including the four statutory factors of section 107. See Sony, 464
U.S. at 447-56. We therefore are obliged to apply that analysis to the
photocopying that occurred in this case.
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n3 See Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying in
Not-For-Profit Educational Institutions, quoted in Patry, The Fair Use
Privilege, at 308, discussed infra, note 5.
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B. The Precise Copyrights at Issue
We must first identify precisely the copyrighted works alleged to be
infringed, [*918] since certain arguments made on appeal seem to
focus on different works. The publishers [**15] typically hold two
separate sets of copyrights in their journal publications. As a consequence of
the publishers' requirement that authors transfer their copyrights when their
articles are accepted for publication, the publishers usually possess the
copyrights that subsist in each individual article appearing within their
journals. n4 Moreover, to the extent that the compilation of a journal issue
involves an original work of authorship, the publishers possess a distinct
copyright in each journal issue as a collective work, see 17 U.S.C. § 103; see
also 17 U.S.C. § 101 (defining "compilation" and "collective work"). See
generally Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340,
356-61, 113 L. Ed. 2d 358, 111 S. Ct. 1282 (1991) (discussing extent of
copyright protection in compilations and collective works).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n4 For various reasons, for example, because
certain articles are the work of the United States Government (which makes
copyright protection unavailable, see 17 U.S.C. § 105), the publishers do not
always possess the copyrights for all articles within each journal.
- - - - - - - - - - - - End Footnotes-
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From the
outset, this lawsuit concerned alleged infringement of the copyrights in
individual journal articles, copyrights assigned by the authors to the
publishers. More specifically, by virtue of the parties' stipulation, this case
now concerns the copyrights in the eight articles from Catalysis found in
Chickering's files, copyrights now owned by Academic Press. There are no
allegations that raise questions concerning Academic Press's potential
copyrights in whole issues or annual volumes of Catalysis as collective
works.
C. Burdens of Proof and Standard of Review
Fair use serves as an affirmative defense to a claim of
copyright infringement, and thus the party claiming that its secondary use of
the original copyrighted work constitutes a fair use typically carries the
burden of proof as to all issues in the dispute. See Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at
1177. Moreover, since fair use is a "mixed question of law and fact," Harper
& Row, 471 U.S. at 560, we review the District Court's conclusions on this
issue de novo, though we accept its subsidiary findings of fact unless clearly
erroneous, see Twin Peaks, 996 F.2d at 1374.
II. The
Enumerated Fair Use Factors of [**17] Section 107
Section 107 of the Copyright Act identifies four non-exclusive factors
that a court is to consider when making its fair use assessment, see 17 U.S.C. §
107(1)-(4). The District Court concluded that three of the four statutory
factors favor the publishers. As detailed below, our analysis of certain
statutory factors differs somewhat from that of the District Court, though we
are in agreement on the ultimate determination. Our differences stem primarily
from the fact that, unlike the District Court, we have had the benefit of the
Supreme Court's important decision in Campbell, decided after Judge Leval issued
his opinion.
A. First Factor: Purpose and Character of
Use
The first factor listed in section 107 is "the
purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial
nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes." 17 U.S.C. § 107(1). Especially
pertinent to an assessment of the first fair use factor are the precise
circumstances under which copies of the eight Catalysis articles were made.
After noticing six of these articles when the original copy of the journal issue
containing each of them was circulated to him, Chickering had [**18]
them photocopied, at least initially, for the same basic purpose that one would
normally seek to obtain the original -- to have it available on his shelf for
ready reference if and when he needed to look at it. The library circulated one
copy and invited all the researchers to make their own photocopies. It is a
reasonable inference that the library staff wanted each journal issue moved
around the building quickly and returned to the library so that it would be
available for others to look at. Making copies enabled all researchers who might
one day be interested in examining the contents of an article in the issue to
have the article [*919] readily available in their own offices. In
Chickering's own words, the copies of the articles were made for "my personal
convenience," since it is "far more convenient to have access in my office to a
photocopy of an article than to have to go to the library each time I wanted to
refer to it." Affidavit of Donald Chickering at 11 (submitted as direct trial
testimony) [hereinafter Chickering testimony]. Significantly, Chickering did not
even have occasion to use five of the photocopied articles at all, further
revealing that the photocopies of the [**19] eight Catalysis articles
were primarily made just for "future retrieval and reference." Id.
It is true that photocopying these articles also served
other purposes. The most favorable for Texaco is the purpose of enabling
Chickering, if the need should arise, to go into the lab with pieces of paper
that (a) were not as bulky as the entire issue or a bound volume of a year's
issues, and (b) presented no risk of damaging the original by exposure to
chemicals. And these purposes might suffice to tilt the first fair use factor in
favor of Texaco if these purposes were dominant. For example, if Chickering had
asked the library to buy him a copy of the pertinent issue of Catalysis and had
placed it on his shelf, and one day while reading it had noticed a chart,
formula, or other material that he wanted to take right into the lab, it might
be a fair use for him to make a photocopy, and use that copy in the lab
(especially if he did not retain it and build up a mini-library of photocopied
articles). This is the sort of "spontaneous" copying that is part of the test
for permissible nonprofit classroom copying. See Agreement on Guidelines for
Classroom Copying in Not-For-Profit [**20] Educational Institutions,
quoted in Patry, The Fair Use Privilege, at 308. n5 But that is not what
happened here as to the six items copied from the circulated issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - -
n5 These guidelines were
included in the legislative history of the 1976 revision of the Copyright Act,
see H.R. Rep. No. 1476, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 68-71 (1976), and were endorsed by
the House Judiciary Committee as "a reasonable interpretation of the minimum
standards of fair use." Id. at 72. Though these guidelines are not considered
necessarily binding on courts, see Marcus v. Rowley, 695 F.2d 1171, 1178 (2d
Cir. 1983), they exist as a persuasive authority marking out certain minimum
standards for educational fair uses, see Basic Books, Inc. v. Kinko's Graphics
Corp., 758 F. Supp. 1522 at 1522-36 (S.D.N.Y. 1991). See generally 3 Nimmer on
Copyright § 13.05[E][3][a], at 13-226.1 to 13-226.2 (discussing nature and
impact of guidelines); Patry, The Fair Use Privilege, at 307-09, 404-07
(same).
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Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As to the
other [**21] two articles, the circumstances are not quite as clear,
but they too appear more to serve the purpose of being additions to Chickering's
office "library" than to be spontaneous copying of a critical page that he was
reading on his way to the lab. One was copied apparently when he saw a reference
to it in another article, which was in an issue circulated to him. The most
likely inference is that he decided that he ought to have copies of both items
-- again for placement on his shelf for later use if the need arose. The last
article was copied, according to his affidavit, when he saw a reference to it
"elsewhere." Chickering testimony at 22. What is clear is that this item too was
simply placed "on the shelf." As he testified, "I kept a copy to refer to in
case I became more involved in support effects research." Id.
The photocopying of these eight Catalysis articles may be characterized
as "archival" -- i.e., done for the primary purpose of providing numerous Texaco
scientists (for whom Chickering served as an example) each with his or her own
personal copy of each article without Texaco's having to purchase another
original journal. n6 The photocopying "merely [*920]
'supersedes [**22] the objects' of the original creation," Campbell,
114 S. Ct. at 1171 (quoting Folsom v. Marsh, 9 F. Cas. 342, 348(C.C.D. Mass.
1841) (No. 4,901) ), and tilts the first fair use factor against Texaco. We do
not mean to suggest that no instance of archival copying would be fair use, but
the first factor tilts against Texaco in this case because the making of copies
to be placed on the shelf in Chickering's office is part of a systematic process
of encouraging employee researchers to copy articles so as to multiply available
copies while avoiding payment.
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- - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n6 In this regard, the District Court's conclusion that the "primary
aspect" of Texaco's copying was to multiply copies is accurate, see 802 F. Supp.
at 14-15, irrespective of the evidence (or lack of evidence) concerning the
nature and scope of Texaco's photocopying activity for its entire population of
scientists. Even if the photocopies of the Catalysis articles in Chickering's
files were the only copies ever made by Texaco -- which, as Texaco stresses, is
all that the evidence developed below conclusively showed -- the primary
objective in making these single copies was to provide Chickering with his own,
additional, readily accessible copy of the original article. As the District
Court noted, "If Chickering were the subscriber and sole user of the
subscription to Catalysis, and he made an extra copy of an article for use in
the lab or for marking with scratch notes, the argument [for a transformative"
fair use] might have considerable force." 802 F. Supp. at 14.
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Texaco
criticizes three aspects of the District Court's analysis of the first factor.
Relying largely on the Supreme Court's discussion of fair use in Sony, the
District Court suggested that a secondary user will "win" this first factor by
showing a "transformative (or productive) nonsuperseding use of the original, or
[a] noncommercial use, generally for a socially beneficial or widely accepted
purpose." 802 F. Supp. at 12. The District Court then concluded that Texaco's
copying is "neither transformative nor noncommercial," id. at 13: not
transformative because Texaco "simply makes mechanical photocopies of the
entirety of relevant articles" and the "primary aspect" of Texaco's photocopying
is to multiply copies, see id. at 13-15; and not noncommercial because, though
it facilitates research, this research is conducted solely for commercial gain,
see id. at 15-16.
Texaco asserts that the District
Court mischaracterized the inquiry under the first factor and overlooked several
relevant considerations. First, Texaco contends that the District Court
inappropriately focussed on the character of the user rather than the nature of
the use in labeling Texaco's [**24] copying as commercial. Texaco
claims that its status as a for-profit corporation has no bearing on the fair
use analysis, and that its use should be considered noncommercial since it
photocopied articles in order to aid Chickering's research. Texaco emphasizes
that "research" is explicitly listed in the preamble of section 107, a
circumstance that Texaco contends should make its copying favored under the
first factor and throughout the entire fair use analysis. n7
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n7 Though Texaco claims that its copying is
for "research" as that term is used in the preamble of section 107, this
characterization might somewhat overstate the matter. Chickering has not used
portions of articles from Catalysis in his own published piece of research, nor
has he had to duplicate some portion of copyrighted material directly in the
course of conducting an experiment or investigation. Rather, entire articles
were copied as an intermediate step that might abet Chickering's research.
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Second, Texaco contends that
the District Court [**25] put undue emphasis on whether its use was
"transformative," especially since the Supreme Court appears to have rejected
the view that a use must be transformative or productive to be a fair use. See
Sony, 464 U.S. at 455 n.40 ("The distinction between 'productive' and
'unproductive' uses may be helpful in calibrating the balance [of interests],
but it cannot be wholly determinative."). Texaco asserts that the
"transformative use" concept is valuable only to the extent that it focusses
attention upon whether a second work unfairly competes with the original. Texaco
states that in this case, where the photocopies it made were not sold or
distributed in competition with the original, the nontransformative nature of
its copying should not prevent a finding of fair use. Texaco also suggests that
its use should be considered transformative: photocopying the article separated
it from a bulky journal, made it more amenable to markings, and provided a
document that could be readily replaced if damaged in a laboratory, all of which
"transformed" the original article into a form that better served Chickering's
research needs.
Finally, Texaco claims that it should
prevail on the first factor [**26] because, as the District Court
acknowledged, the type of photocopying it conducted is widespread and has long
been considered reasonable and customary. Texaco stresses that some courts and
commentators regard custom and common usage as integral to the fair use
analysis. See, e.g., Williams & Wilkins Co. v. United States, 487 F.2d 1345,
1353-56, 203 Ct. Cl. 74 (Ct. Cl. 1973), aff'd by equally divided Court, 420 U.S.
376, [*921] 43 L. Ed. 2d 264, 95 S. Ct. 1344 (1975); Lloyd L.
Weinreb, Fair's Fair: A Comment on the Fair Use Doctrine, 103 Harv. L. Rev.
1137, 1140 (1990) [hereinafter Weinreb, Fair's Fair]. We consider these three
lines of attack separately.
1. Commercial use. We
generally agree with Texaco's contention that the District Court placed undue
emphasis on the fact that Texaco is a for-profit corporation conducting research
primarily for commercial gain. Since many, if not most, secondary users seek at
least some measure of commercial gain from their use, unduly emphasizing the
commercial motivation of a copier will lead to an overly restrictive view of
fair use. See Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at 1174; see also Maxtone-Graham v.
Burtchaell, 803 F.2d 1253, 1262 (2d Cir. 1986) (noting that if "commercial"
[**27] nature of a secondary use is over-emphasized in the analysis,
"fair use would be virtually obliterated"), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1059, 95 L.
Ed. 2d 856, 107 S. Ct. 2201 (1987). See generally 3 Nimmer on Copyright §
13.05[A][1][c], at 13-162 to 13-163 (categorical rule against commercial uses
unwarranted since this "would cause the fair use analysis to collapse in all but
the exceptional case of nonprofit exploitation"). Though the Supreme Court had
stated in Sony that every commercial use was "presumptively" unfair, see 464
U.S. at 451, that Court and lower courts have come to explain that the
commercial nature of a secondary use simply "'tends to weigh against a finding
of fair use.'" Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at 1174 (quoting Harper & Row, 471 U.S.
at 562); accord Rogers v. Koons, 960 F.2d 301, 309 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 121
L. Ed. 2d 278, 113 S. Ct. 365 (1992); Sega Enterprises Limited v. Accolade,
Inc., 977 F.2d 1510, 1522 (9th Cir. 1992); Maxtone-Graham, 803 F.2d at 1262.
Indeed, Campbell warns against 'elevating . . . to a per
se rule' Sony's language about a presumption against fair use arising from
commercial use. 114 S. Ct. at 1174. Campbell discards that
language [**28] in favor of a more subtle, sophisticated approach,
which recognizes that 'the more transformative the new work, the less will be
the significance of other factors, like commercialism, that may weigh against a
finding of fair use.' Id. at 1171. The Court states that 'the commercial or
nonprofit educational purpose of a work is only one element of the first factor
enquiry' id. at 1174, and points out that 'if, indeed, commerciality carried
presumptive force against a finding of fairness, the presumption would swallow
nearly all of the illustrative uses listed in the preamble paragraph of § 107 .
. . .' Id.
We do not mean to suggest that the District
Court overlooked these principles; in fact, the Court discussed them
insightfully, see 802 F. Supp. at 12-13. Rather, our concern here is that the
Court let the for-profit nature of Texaco's activity weigh against Texaco
without differentiating between a direct commercial use and the more indirect
relation to commercial activity that occurred here. Texaco was not gaining
direct or immediate commercial advantage from the photocopying at issue in this
case -- i.e., Texaco's profits, revenues, and overall commercial
performance [**29] were not tied to its making copies of eight
Catalysis articles for Chickering. Cf. Basic Books, Inc. v. Kinko's Graphics
Corp., 758 F. Supp. 1522 (S.D.N.Y. 1991) (revenues of reprographic business
stemmed directly from selling unauthorized photocopies of copyrighted books).
Rather, Texaco's photocopying served, at most, to facilitate Chickering's
research, which in turn might have led to the development of new products and
technology that could have improved Texaco's commercial performance. Texaco's
photocopying is more appropriately labeled an "intermediate use." See Sega
Enterprises, 977 F.2d at 1522-23 (labeling secondary use "intermediate" and
finding first factor in favor of for-profit company, even though ultimate
purpose of copying was to develop competing commercial product, because
immediate purpose of copying computer code was to study idea contained within
computer program).
We do not consider Texaco's status
as a for-profit company irrelevant to the fair use analysis. Though Texaco
properly contends that a court's focus should be on the use of the copyrighted
material and not simply on [*922] the user, it is overly simplistic
to suggest that the "purpose and [**30] character of the use" can be
fully discerned without considering the nature and objectives of the user. n8
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
n8 See Patry, The Fair Use
Privilege, at 416-17 (noting that the nature of person or entity engaging in use
affects the character of the use); Report of the Register of Copyrights --
Library Reproduction of Copyrighted Works (17 U.S.C. 108) 85 (1983) (explaining
that though a scientist in a for-profit firm and a university student may engage
in the same photocopying of scholarly articles to facilitate their research,
"the copyright consequences are different: [the scientist's] copying is of a
clearly commercial nature, and less likely to be fair use") quoted in Patry, The
Fair Use Privilege, at 417 n.307.
-
- - - - - - - - - - - End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ultimately, the somewhat cryptic suggestion in section 107(1) to
consider whether the secondary use "is of a commercial nature or is for
nonprofit educational purposes" connotes that a court should examine, among
other factors, the value obtained by the secondary user from the
use [**31] of the copyrighted material. See Rogers, 960 F.2d at 309
("The first factor . . . asks whether the original was copied in good faith to
benefit the public or primarily for the commercial interests of the
infringer."); MCA, Inc. v. Wilson, 677 F.2d 180, 182 (2d Cir. 1981) (court is to
consider "whether the alleged infringing use was primarily for public benefit or
for private commercial gain"). The commercial/nonprofit dichotomy concerns the
unfairness that arises when a secondary user makes unauthorized use of
copyrighted material to capture significant revenues as a direct consequence of
copying the original work. See Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 562 ("The crux of
the profit/nonprofit distinction is . . . whether the user stands to profit from
exploitation of the copyrighted material without paying the customary
price.").
Consistent with these principles, courts will
not sustain a claimed defense of fair use when the secondary use can fairly be
characterized as a form of "commercial exploitation," i.e., when the copier
directly and exclusively acquires conspicuous financial rewards from its use of
the copyrighted material. See Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 562-63;
[**32] Twin Peaks, 996 F.2d at 1375; Rogers, 960 F.2d at 309; Iowa
State University Research Foundation, Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies,
Inc., 621 F.2d 57, 61 (2d Cir. 1980); Meeropol v. Nizer, 560 F.2d 1061, 1069 (2d
Cir. 1977) (examining whether use was "predominantly for commercial
exploitation"), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1013, 54 L. Ed. 2d 756, 98 S. Ct. 727
(1978). Conversely, courts are more willing to find a secondary use fair when it
produces a value that benefits the broader public interest. See Twin Peaks, 996
F.2d at 1375; Sega Enterprises, 977 F.2d at 1523; Rosemont Enterprises, Inc. v.
Random House, Inc., 366 F.2d 303, 307-09 (2d Cir. 1966), cert. denied, 385 U.S.
1009, 17 L. Ed. 2d 546, 87 S. Ct. 714 (1967). The greater the private economic
rewards reaped by the secondary user (to the exclusion of broader public
benefits), the more likely the first factor will favor the copyright holder and
the less likely the use will be considered fair.
As
noted before, in this particular case the link between Texaco's commercial gain
and its copying is somewhat attenuated: the copying, at most, merely facilitated
Chickering's research that might have led to the production of commercially
valuable products. Thus, [**33] it would not be accurate to conclude
that Texaco's copying of eight particular Catalysis articles amounted to
"commercial exploitation," especially since the immediate goal of Texaco's
copying was to facilitate Chickering's research in the sciences, an objective
that might well serve a broader public purpose. See Twin Peaks, 996 F.2d at
1375; Sega Enterprises, 977 F.2d at 1522. Still, we need not ignore the
for-profit nature of Texaco's enterprise, especially since we can confidently
conclude that Texaco reaps at least some indirect economic advantage from its
photocopying. As the publishers emphasize, Texaco's photocopying for Chickering
could be regarded simply as another "factor of production" utilized in Texaco's
efforts to develop profitable products. Conceptualized in this way, it is not
obvious why it is fair for Texaco to avoid having to pay at least some price to
copyright holders for the right to photocopy the original articles.
2. Transformative Use. The District Court properly
emphasized that Texaco's photocopying was not "transformative." After
[*923] the District Court issued its opinion, the Supreme Court
explicitly ruled that the concept of a "transformative [**34] use" is
central to a proper analysis under the first factor, see Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at
1171-73. The Court explained that though a "transformative use is not absolutely
necessary for a finding of fair use, . . . the more transformative the new work,
the less will be the significance of other factors, like commercialism, that may
weigh against a finding of fair use." Id. at 1171.
The
"transformative use" concept is pertinent to a court's investigation under the
first factor because it assesses the value generated by the secondary use and
the means by which such value is generated. To the extent that the secondary use
involves merely an untransformed duplication, the value generated by the
secondary use is little or nothing more than the value that inheres in the
original. Rather than making some contribution of new intellectual value and
thereby fostering the advancement of the arts and sciences, an untransformed
copy is likely to be used simply for the same intrinsic purpose as the original,
thereby providing limited justification for a finding of fair use. See Weissmann
v. Freeman, 868 F.2d 1313, 1324 (2d Cir.) (explaining that a use merely for the
same "intrinsic purpose" [**35] as original "moves the balance of
the calibration on the first factor against" secondary user and "seriously
weakens a claimed fair use"), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 883, 107 L. Ed. 2d 172, 110
S. Ct. 219 (1989). n9
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n9
See also Marcus v. Rowley, 695 F.2d at 1175 (emphasizing that "a finding that
the alleged infringers copied the material to use it for the same intrinsic
purpose for which the copyright owner intended it to be used is strong indicia
of no fair use."). See generally Leon E. Seltzer, Exemptions and Fair Use in
Copyright 24 (1978) (noting traditional limit on applicability of fair use
doctrine when reproduction of original work is done "in order to use it for its
intrinsic purpose -- to make what might be called the 'ordinary' use of it").
- - - - - - - - - - - - End Footnotes-
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
In contrast, to the extent
that the secondary use "adds something new, with a further purpose or different
character," the value generated goes beyond the value that inheres in the
original and "the goal of copyright, to promote science and the arts, is
generally furthered." [**36] Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at 1171,; see also
Pierre N. Leval, Toward a Fair Use Standard, 103 Harv. L. Rev. 1105, 1111 (1990)
[hereinafter Leval, Toward a Fair Use Standard]. It is therefore not surprising
that the "preferred" uses illustrated in the preamble to section 107, such as
criticism and comment, generally involve some transformative use of the original
work. See 3 Nimmer on Copyright § 13.05[A][1][b], at 13-160.
Texaco suggests that its conversion of the individual Catalysis
articles through photocopying into a form more easily used in a laboratory might
constitute a transformative use. However, Texaco's photocopying merely
transforms the material object embodying the intangible article that is the
copyrighted original work. See 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 102 (explaining that copyright
protection in literary works subsists in the original work of authorship
"regardless of the nature of the material objects . . . in which they are
embodied"). Texaco's making of copies cannot properly be regarded as a
transformative use of the copyrighted material. See Steven D. Smit, "Make a Copy
for the File . . .": Copyright Infringement by Attorneys, 46
Baylor [**37] L. Rev. 1, 15 & n.58 (1994); see also Basic Books,
758 F. Supp. at 1530-31 (repackaging in anthology form of excerpts from
copyrighted books not a transformative use).
Even
though Texaco's photocopying is not technically a transformative use of the
copyrighted material, we should not overlook the significant independent value
that can stem from conversion of original journal articles into a format
different from their normal appearance. See generally Sony, 464 U.S. at 454, 455
n.40 (acknowledging possible benefits from copying that might otherwise seem to
serve "no productive purpose"); Weinreb, Fair's Fair, at 1143 & n.29
(discussing potential value from nontransformative copying). As previously
explained, Texaco's photocopying converts the individual Catalysis articles into
a useful format. Before modern photocopying, Chickering probably would have
converted the original article into a more serviceable form by taking notes,
whether cursory or [*924] extended; n10 today he can do so with a
photocopying machine. Nevertheless, whatever independent value derives from the
more usable format of the photocopy does not mean that every instance of
photocopying wins on the first [**38] factor. In this case, the
predominant archival purpose of the copying tips the first factor against the
copier, despite the benefit of a more usable format.
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n10 In stating that a handwritten copy would
have been made, we do not mean to imply that such copying would necessarily have
been a fair use. Despite the 1973 dictum in Williams & Wilkins asserting
that "it is almost unanimously accepted that a scholar can make a handwritten
copy of an entire copyrighted article for his own use . . . ," 487 F.2d at 1350,
the current edition of the Nimmer treatise reports that "there is no reported
case on the question of whether a single handwritten copy of all or
substantially all of a book or other protected work made for the copier's own
private use is an infringement or fair use." 3 Nimmer on Copyright §
1305[E][4][a], at 13-229.
- - - - -
- - - - - - - End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3. Reasonable and Customary Practice. Texaco contends that Chickering's
photocopying constitutes a use that has historically been considered "reasonable
and customary." We [**39] agree with the District Court that whatever
validity this argument might have had before the advent of the photocopying
licensing arrangements discussed below in our consideration of the fourth fair
use factor, the argument today is insubstantial. As the District Court observed,
"To the extent the copying practice was 'reasonable' in 1973 [when Williams
& Wilkins was decided], it has ceased to be 'reasonable' as the reasons that
justified it before [photocopying licensing] have ceased to exist." 802 F. Supp.
at 25.
In amplification of Texaco's arguments, our
dissenting colleague makes two further points about the first factor analysis
that merit a response. First, the dissent disputes our characterization of
Chickering's use as "archival" on the ground that such a use would occur in an
institutional setting, whereas Chickering copied for his personal use. Second,
the dissent contends that Chickering's use is transformative because it is an
important step in the process of doing research. We think the proper response to
these observations emerges from considering how they would fare if the Texaco
library had sent around entire books, rather than issues of a journal. Clearly,
[**40] Chickering (and all the other researchers at the Beacon
facility) would be making archival use of the circulating books if they made
photocopies of the books for their individual offices and thereby spared Texaco
the expense of buying them all individual volumes. An individual copies for
archival purposes even if the resulting archive remains in a private office.
When a corporation invites such archival copying by circulating items likely to
be worth copying (whether articles or entire books), any distinction between
individual and institutional archiving loses all significance.
Moreover, the concept of a "transformative" use would be extended
beyond recognition if it was applied to Chickering's copying simply because he
acted in the course of doing research. The purposes illustrated by the
categories listed in section 107 refer primarily to the work of authorship
alleged to be a fair use, not to the activity in which the alleged infringer is
engaged. Texaco cannot gain fair use insulation for Chickering's archival
photocopying of articles (or books) simply because such copying is done by a
company doing research. It would be equally extravagant for a newspaper to
contend that because [**41] its business is "news reporting" it may
line the shelves of its reporters with photocopies of books on journalism or
that schools engaged in "teaching" may supply its faculty members with personal
photocopies of books on educational techniques or substantive fields. Whatever
benefit copying and reading such books might contribute to the process of
"teaching" would not for that reason satisfy the test of a "teaching"
purpose.
On balance, we agree with the District Court
that the first factor favors the publishers, primarily because the dominant
purpose of the use is a systematic institutional policy of multiplying the
available number of copies of pertinent copyrighted articles by circulating the
journals among employed scientists for them to make copies, thereby serving the
same purpose for which additional subscriptions [*925] are normally
sold, or, as will be discussed, for which photocopying licenses may be
obtained.
B. Second Factor: Nature of Copyrighted
Work
The second statutory fair use factor is "the
nature of the copyrighted work." 17 U.S.C. § 107(2). In assessing this factor,
the District Court noted that the articles in Catalysis "are created for
publication with the purpose [**42] and intention of benefiting from
the protection of the copyright law," and that copyright protection "is vitally
necessary to the dissemination of scientific articles of the sort that are at
issue." 802 F. Supp. at 16. Nevertheless, the Court ultimately concluded that
this factor favored Texaco because the photocopied articles were essentially
factual in nature and the "'scope of fair use is greater with respect to factual
than nonfactual works.'" Id. at 16-17 (quoting New Era Publications
International, ApS v. Carol Publishing Group, 904 F.2d 152, 157 (2d Cir.), cert.
denied, 498 U.S. 921, 112 L. Ed. 2d 251, 111 S. Ct. 297 (1990)).
On appeal, the publishers stress the District Court's comments
concerning the importance of broad copyright protection for journal publications
in order to foster journal production. Further, citing Harper & Row for the
proposition that the creativity of an original work weighs against finding fair
use, see 471 U.S. at 563, the publishers also point out that "the journal
articles are expressions of highly original, creative and imaginative
thinking."
Though a significant measure of creativity
was undoubtedly used in the creation of the eight articles copied from
[**43] Catalysis, even a glance at their content immediately reveals
the predominantly factual nature of these works. n11 Moreover, though we have
previously recognized the importance of strong copyright protection to provide
sufficient incentives for the creation of scientific works, see Weissmann, 868
F.2d at 1325, nearly every category of copyrightable works could plausibly
assert that broad copyright protection was essential to the continued vitality
of that category of works.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n11 Not only are the Catalysis articles essentially factual in nature,
but the evidence suggests that Chickering was interested exclusively in the
facts, ideas, concepts, or principles contained within the articles. Though
scientists surely employ creativity and originality to develop ideas and obtain
facts and thereafter to convey the ideas and facts in scholarly articles, it is
primarily the ideas and facts themselves that are of value to other scientists
in their research.
- - - - - - - - -
- - - End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ultimately, then, the manifestly factual character [**44] of
the eight articles precludes us from considering the articles as "within the
core of the copyright's protective purposes," Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at 1175; see
also Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 563 ("The law generally recognizes a greater
need to disseminate factual works than works of fiction or fantasy."). Thus, in
agreement with the District Court, we conclude that the second factor favors
Texaco.
C. Third Factor: Amount and Substantiality of
Portion Used
he third statutory fair use factor is "the
amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted
work as a whole." 17 U.S.C. § 107(3). The District Court concluded that this
factor clearly favors the publishers because Texaco copied the eight articles
from Catalysis in their entirety.
Texaco makes various
responses to the District Court's straightforward conclusion. First, Texaco
claims that this factor is significant only as a means to determine whether a
copy unfairly supersedes demand for the original and should be considered
"largely irrelevant" where, as here, a copy is not sold or distributed. Second,
Texaco claims that, rather than focus on Texaco's copying of entire articles, it
is [**45] more appropriate to consider that Texaco copied only a very
small portion of any particular issue or volume of Catalysis. Finally, Texaco
cites Sony and Williams & Wilkins for the proposition that the copying of
entire copyrighted works can still constitute fair use. See Sony, 464 U.S. at
449-50; Williams & Wilkins, 487 F.2d at 1353.
Texaco's suggestion that we consider that it copied only a small
percentage of the [*926] total compendium of works encompassed
within Catalysis is superficially intriguing, especially since Catalysis is
traditionally marketed only as a periodical by issue or volume. However, as the
District Court recognized, each of the eight articles in Catalysis was
separately authored and constitutes a discrete "original work[] of authorship,"
17 U.S.C. § 102. As we emphasized at the outset, each article enjoys independent
copyright protection, which the authors transferred to Academic Press, and what
the publishers claim has been infringed is the copyright that subsists in each
individual article -- not the distinct copyright that may subsist in each
journal issue or volume by virtue of the publishers' original compilation of
these [**46] articles. The only other appellate court to consider the
propriety of photocopying articles from journals also recognized that each
article constituted an entire work in the fair use analysis. See Williams &
Wilkins, 487 F.2d at 1353.
Despite Texaco's claims that
we consider its amount of copying "minuscule" in relation to the entirety of
Catalysis, we conclude, as did the District Court, that Texaco has copied entire
works. Though this conclusion does not preclude a finding of fair use, it
militates against such a finding, see Sony, 464 U.S. at 449-50, and weights the
third factor in favor of the publishers.
Finally,
though we are sensitive to Texaco's claim that the third factor serves merely as
a proxy for determining whether a secondary use significantly interferes with
demand for the original -- a concern echoed by some commentators, see William W.
Fisher III, Reconstructing the Fair Use Doctrine, 101 Harv. L. Rev. 1661, 1678
(1988) [hereinafter Fisher, Reconstructing Fair Use] -- we think this factor
serves a further end that advances the fair use analysis. Specifically, by
focussing on the amount and substantiality of the original work used by
the [**47] secondary user, we gain insight into the purpose and
character of the use as we consider whether the quantity of the material used
was "reasonable in relation to the purpose of the copying." See Campbell, 114 S.
Ct. at 1175. In this case, the fact that Texaco photocopied the eight Catalysis
articles in their entirety weakens its assertion that the overriding purpose and
character of its use was to enable the immediate use of the article in the
laboratory and strengthens our view that the predominant purpose and character
of the use was to establish a personal library of pertinent articles for
Chickering. Cf. id. at 1176 (intimating that extent of copying can provide
insight into primary purpose of copying).
D. Fourth
Factor: Effect Upon Potential Market or Value
The
fourth statutory fair use factor is "the effect of the use upon the potential
market for or value of the copyrighted work." 17 U.S.C. § 107(4). Assessing this
factor, the District Court detailed the range of procedures Texaco could use to
obtain authorized copies of the articles that it photocopied and found that
"whatever combination of procedures Texaco used, the publishers' revenues would
grow significantly." [**48] 802 F. Supp. at 19. The Court concluded
that the publishers "powerfully demonstrated entitlement to prevail as to the
fourth factor," since they had shown "a substantial harm to the value of their
copyrights" as the consequence of Texaco's copying. See id. at 18-21.
Prior to Campbell, the Supreme Court had characterized the
fourth factor as "the single most important element of fair use," Harper &
Row, 471 U.S. at 566; accord 3 Nimmer on Copyright § 13.05[A][4], at 13-183.
However, Campbell's discussion of the fourth factor conspicuously omits this
phrasing. Apparently abandoning the idea that any factor enjoys primacy,
Campbell instructs that 'all [four factors] are to be explored, and the results
weighed together, in light of the purposes of copyright.' 114 S. Ct. at 1171.
In analyzing the fourth factor, it is important (1) to
bear in mind the precise copyrighted works, namely the eight journal articles,
and (2) to recognize the distinctive nature and history of "the potential market
for [*927] or value of" these particular works. n12 Specifically,
though there is a traditional market for, and hence a clearly defined value of,
journal issues and volumes [**49] , in the form of per-issue
purchases and journal subscriptions, there is neither a traditional market for,
nor a clearly defined value of, individual journal articles. As a result,
analysis of the fourth factor cannot proceed as simply as would have been the
case if Texaco had copied a work that carries a stated or negotiated selling
price in the market.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n12 We focus on the eight articles to emphasize the special
characteristics of articles as distinguished from journal issues or bound
volumes. In doing so, we recognize, as did the District Court, see 802 F. Supp.
at 18 n.15, that the fourth factor is concerned with the category of a
defendant's conduct, not merely the specific instances of copying. See 3 Nimmer
on Copyright § 13.05[A][4], at 13-183 to 13-184 ("It is a mistake to view [the
fourth] factor . . . as merely raising the question of the extent of damages to
plaintiff caused by the particular activities of the defendant. This factor
rather poses the issue of whether unrestricted and widespread conduct of the
sort engaged in by the defendant . . . would result in a substantially adverse
impact on the potential market for or value of the plaintiff's present work.")
(emphasis added).
- - - - - - - - -
- - - End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [**50]
Like most authors, writers of journal articles do not directly seek to
capture the potential financial rewards that stem from their copyrights by
personally marketing copies of their writings. Rather, like other creators of
literary works, the author of a journal article "commonly sells his rights to
publishers who offer royalties in exchange for their services in producing and
marketing the author's work." Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 547. In the
distinctive realm of academic and scientific articles, however, the only form of
royalty paid by a publisher is often just the reward of being published,
publication being a key to professional advancement and prestige for the author,
see Weissmann, 868 F.2d at 1324 (noting that "in an academic setting, profit is
ill-measured in dollars. Instead, what is valuable is recognition because it so
often influences professional advancement and academic tenure."). The publishers
in turn incur the costs and labor of producing and marketing authors' articles,
driven by the prospect of capturing the economic value stemming from the
copyrights in the original works, which the authors have transferred to them.
Ultimately, the monopoly privileges [**51] conferred by copyright
protection and the potential financial rewards therefrom are not directly
serving to motivate authors to write individual articles; rather, they serve to
motivate publishers to produce journals, which provide the conventional and
often exclusive means for disseminating these individual articles. It is the
prospect of such dissemination that contributes to the motivation of these
authors.
Significantly, publishers have traditionally
produced and marketed authors' individual articles only in a journal format,
i.e., in periodical compilations of numerous articles. In other words,
publishers have conventionally sought to capture the economic value from the
"exclusive rights" to "reproduce" and "distribute copies" of the individual
articles, see 17 U.S.C. § 106(1) & (3), solely by compiling many such
articles together in a periodical journal and then charging a fee to subscribe.
Publishers have not traditionally provided a simple or efficient means to obtain
single copies of individual articles; reprints are usually available from
publishers only in bulk quantities and with some delay.
This marketing pattern has various consequences for our analysis
of [**52] the fourth factor. First, evidence concerning the effect
that photocopying individual journal articles has on the traditional market for
journal subscriptions is of somewhat less significance than if a market existed
for the sale of individual copies of articles. Second, this distinctive
arrangement raises novel questions concerning the significance of the
publishers' establishment of an innovative licensing scheme for the photocopying
of individual journal articles.
1. Sales of Additional
Journal Subscriptions, Back Issues, and Back Volumes. Since we are concerned
with the claim of fair use in copying the eight individual articles from
Catalysis, the analysis under the fourth factor must focus on the effect of
Texaco's photocopying upon the potential market for or value of these individual
articles. Yet, in their respective discussions of the fourth statutory factor,
the parties initially focus on the impact of Texaco's photocopying of individual
[*928] journal articles upon the market for Catalysis journals
through sales of Catalysis subscriptions, back issues, or back volumes.
As a general matter, examining the effect on the
marketability of the composite work containing [**53] a particular
individual copyrighted work serves as a useful means to gauge the impact of a
secondary use "upon the potential market for or value of" that individual work,
since the effect on the marketability of the composite work will frequently be
directly relevant to the effect on the market for or value of that individual
work. n13 Quite significantly, though, in the unique world of academic and
scientific articles, the effect on the marketability of the composite work in
which individual articles appear is not obviously related to the effect on the
market for or value of the individual articles. Since (1) articles are submitted
unsolicited to journals, (2) publishers do not make any payment to authors for
the right to publish their articles or to acquire their copyrights, and (3)
there is no evidence in the record suggesting that publishers seek to reprint
particular articles in new composite works, we cannot readily conclude that
evidence concerning the effect of Texaco's use on the marketability of journals
provides an effective means to appraise the effect of Texaco's use on the market
for or value of individual journal articles.
- - - - -
- - - - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n13 One reason that the effect on the marketability of the
composite work is typically relevant is because the strength of the market for
the composite work will influence the payment producers will be willing to give
to the author of the individual work for permission to include that individual
work. For example, if a secondary use of a copyrighted story adversely affects
purchases of a collection of short stories in which this story appears, then
other producers of short story collections will less likely seek to have, or
will pay less to have, that story as part of their collections. In this way, the
market for or value of the story has clearly been affected by the secondary
use.
- - - - - - - - - - - - End
Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [**54]
These considerations persuade us that evidence concerning the effect of
Texaco's photocopying of individual articles within Catalysis on the traditional
market for Catalysis subscriptions is of somewhat limited significance in
determining and evaluating the effect of Texaco's photocopying "upon the
potential market for or value of" the individual articles. We do not mean to
suggest that we believe the effect on the marketability of journal subscriptions
is completely irrelevant to gauging the effect on the market for and value of
individual articles. Were the publishers able to demonstrate that Texaco's type
of photocopying, if widespread, n14 would impair the marketability of journals,
then they might have a strong claim under the fourth factor. Likewise, were
Texaco able to demonstrate that its type of photocopying, even if widespread,
would have virtually no effect on the marketability of journals, then it might
have a strong claim under this fourth factor.
- - - - -
- - - - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n14 Properly applied, the fourth factor requires a court
to consider "not only . . . particular actions of the alleged infringer, but
also 'whether unrestricted and widespread conduct of the sort engaged in by the
defendant . . . would result in a substantially adverse impact on the potential
market' for the original." Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at 1177 (quoting 3 Nimmer on
Copyright § 13.05[A][4]). Accord Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 568-69; Rogers,
960 F.2d at 312.
- - - - - - - - - -
- - End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [**55]
On this record, however, the evidence is not resounding for either
side. The District Court specifically found that, in the absence of
photocopying, (1) "Texaco would not ordinarily fill the need now being supplied
by photocopies through the purchase of back issues or back volumes . . . [or] by
enormously enlarging the number of its subscriptions," but (2) Texaco still
"would increase the number of subscriptions somewhat." 802 F. Supp. at 19. n15
This moderate conclusion concerning [*929] the actual effect on the
marketability of journals, combined with the uncertain relationship between the
market for journals and the market for and value of individual articles, leads
us to conclude that the evidence concerning sales of additional journal
subscriptions, back issues, and back volumes does not strongly support either
side with regard to the fourth factor. Cf. Sony, 464 U.S. at 451-55 (rejecting
various predictions of harm to value of copyrighted work based on speculation
about possible consequences of secondary use). At best, the loss of a few
journal subscriptions tips the fourth factor only slightly toward the publishers
because evidence of such loss is weak evidence that the copied [**56]
articles themselves have lost any value.
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n15 Texaco assails the conclusion that, without
photocopying, it would increase subscriptions "somewhat" as an improper
inference unsupported by the evidence. Though we accept Texaco's assertion that
additional subscriptions provide an imperfect substitute for the copies of
individual articles that scientists need and prefer, we cannot conclude that the
District Court's factual finding that "Texaco would add at least a modest number
of subscriptions," 802 F. Supp. at 19, is clearly erroneous.
First, though Texaco claims that there is no reliable evidence
suggesting that photocopying served to facilitate journal circulation, the
evidence concerning Texaco's routing practices supports the District Court's
inference that, without photocopying, Texaco will need a greater number of
subscriptions to insure the prompt circulation of journals. Second, as discussed
in connection with the first statutory factor, the dominant reason for, and
value derived from, the copying of the eight particular Catalysis articles was
to make them available on Chickering's shelf for ready reference when he needed
to look at them. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that Texaco would purchase
at least a few additional subscriptions to serve this purpose, i.e., to provide
certain researchers with personal copies of particular articles in their own
offices.
- - - - - - - - - - - - End
Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [**57]
2. Licensing Revenues and Fees. The District Court, however, went
beyond discussing the sales of additional journal subscriptions in holding that
Texaco's photocopying affected the value of the publishers' copyrights.
Specifically, the Court pointed out that, if Texaco's unauthorized photocopying
was not permitted as fair use, the publishers' revenues would increase
significantly since Texaco would (1) obtain articles from document delivery
services (which pay royalties to publishers for the right to photocopy
articles), (2) negotiate photocopying licenses directly with individual
publishers, and/or (3) acquire some form of photocopying license from the
Copyright Clearance Center Inc. ("CCC"). n16 See 802 F. Supp. at 19. Texaco
claims that the District Court's reasoning is faulty because, in determining
that the value of the publishers' copyrights was affected, the Court assumed
that the publishers were entitled to demand and receive licensing royalties and
fees for photocopying. Yet, continues Texaco, whether the publishers can demand
a fee for permission to make photocopies is the very question that the fair use
trial is supposed to answer.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n16 The CCC is a central clearing-house established in 1977 primarily
by publishers to license photocopying. The CCC offers a variety of licensing
schemes; fees can be paid on a per copy basis or through blanket license
arrangements. Most publishers are registered with the CCC, but the participation
of for-profit institutions that engage in photocopying has been limited, largely
because of uncertainty concerning the legal questions at issue in this lawsuit.
The CCC is fully described in the District Court's opinion. 802 FG. Supp. at
7-9. A more extended discussion of the formation, development, and effectiveness
of the CCC and its licensing schemes is contained in Stanley M. Besen &
Sheila Nataraj Kirby, Compensating Creators of Intellectual Property:
Collectives that Collect (1989).
- -
- - - - - - - - - - End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- [**58]
It is indisputable that, as a
general matter, a copyright holder is entitled to demand a royalty for licensing
others to use its copyrighted work, see 17 U.S.C. § 106 (copyright owner has
exclusive right "to authorize" certain uses), and that the impact on potential
licensing revenues is a proper subject for consideration in assessing the fourth
factor, see, e.g., Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at 1178; Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at
568-69; Twin Peaks, 996 F.2d at 1377; DC Comics Inc. v. Reel Fantasy, Inc., 696
F.2d 24, 28 (2d Cir. 1982); United Telephone Co. of Missouri v. Johnson
Publishing Co., Inc., 855 F.2d 604, 610 (8th Cir. 1988).
However, not every effect on potential licensing revenues enters the
analysis under the fourth factor. n17 Specifically, courts have
[*930] recognized limits on the concept of "potential licensing
revenues" by considering only traditional, reasonable, or likely to be developed
markets when examining and assessing a secondary use's "effect upon the
potential market for or value of the copyrighted work." See Campbell, 114 S. Ct.
at 1178 ("The market for potential derivative uses includes only those that
creators of original works would [**59] in general develop or license
others to develop."); Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 568 (fourth factor concerned
with "use that supplants any part of the normal market for a copyrighted work")
(emphasis added) (quoting S. Rep. No. 473, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 65 (1975)); see
also Mathieson v. Associated Press, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9269, 23 U.S.P.Q.2d
1685, 1690-91 (S.D.N.Y. 1992) (refusing to find fourth factor in favor of
copyright holder because secondary use did not affect any aspect of the normal
market for copyrighted work).
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n17 As Texaco notes and others have recognized, a copyright holder can
always assert some degree of adverse affect on its potential licensing revenues
as a consequence of the secondary use at issue simply because the copyright
holder has not been paid a fee to permit that particular use. See Leval, Toward
a Fair Use Standard, at 1124 ("By definition every fair use involves some loss
of royalty revenue because the secondary user has not paid royalties."); Fisher,
Reconstructing Fair Use, at 1671 (noting that in almost every case "there will
be some material adverse impact on a 'potential market'" since the secondary
user has not paid for the use). Thus, were a court automatically to conclude in
every case that potential licensing revenues were impermissibly impaired simply
because the secondary user did not pay a fee for the right to engage in the use,
the fourth fair use factor would always favor the copyright holder. See Leval,
Toward a Fair Use Standard, at 1125; Fisher, Reconstructing Fair Use, at
1672.
- - - - - - - - - - - - End
Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [**60]
For example, the Supreme Court recently explained that because of the
"unlikelihood that creators of imaginative works will license critical reviews
or lampoons" of their works, "the law recognizes no derivative market for
critical works," Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at 1178. Similarly, other courts have
found that the fourth factor will favor the secondary user when the only
possible adverse effect occasioned by the secondary use would be to a potential
market or value that the copyright holder has not typically sought to, or
reasonably been able to, obtain or capture. See Twin Peaks, 996 F.2d at 1377
(noting that fourth factor will favor secondary user when use "filled a market
niche that the [copyright owner] simply had no interest in occupying"); Pacific
and Southern Co. v. Duncan, 744 F.2d 1490, 1496 (11th Cir. 1984) cert. denied,
471 U.S. 1004, 85 L. Ed. 2d 161, 105 S. Ct. 1867 (1985) (noting that the fourth
factor may not favor copyright owner when the secondary user "profits from an
activity that the owner could not possibly take advantage of"). n18
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - -
n18 The Supreme Court's holding
in Sony implicitly recognizes limits on the concept of "potential market for or
value of the copyrighted work." Despite Justice Blackmun's dissenting view that
the copying of television programs to enable private viewing at a more
convenient time, i.e., "time-shifting," deprived copyright holders of the
ability to exploit the "sizable market" of persons who "would be willing to pay
some kind of royalty" for the "privilege of watching copyrighted work at their
convenience," Sony, 464 U.S. at 485, the majority found that the copyright
holders "failed to demonstrate that time-shifting would cause any likelihood of
non-minimal harm to the potential market for, or the value of, their copyrighted
works." Id. at 456. The Court thus implicitly ruled that the potential market in
licensing royalties enunciated by Justice Blackmun should be considered too
insubstantial to tilt the fourth fair use factor in favor of the copyright
holder.
- - - - - - - - - - - - End
Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - [**61]
Thus, Texaco is correct, at least as a general matter, when it contends
that it is not always appropriate for a court to be swayed on the fourth factor
by the effects on potential licensing revenues. Only an impact on potential
licensing revenues for traditional, reasonable, or likely to be developed
markets should be legally cognizable when evaluating a secondary use's "effect
upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."
Though the publishers still have not established a conventional market
for the direct sale and distribution of individual articles, they have created,
primarily through the CCC, a workable market for institutional users to obtain
licenses for the right to produce their own copies of individual articles via
photocopying. The District Court found that many major corporations now
subscribe to the CCC systems for photocopying licenses. 802 F. Supp. at 25.
Indeed, it appears from the pleadings, especially Texaco's counterclaim, that
Texaco itself has been paying royalties to the CCC. See Complaint P 38; First
Counterclaim P 71. Since the Copyright Act explicitly provides that copyright
holders have the "exclusive rights" to "reproduce" and [**62]
"distribute copies" of their works, see 17 U.S.C. § 106(1) & (3), and since
there currently exists a viable market for licensing these rights for individual
journal articles, it is appropriate that potential licensing revenues for
photocopying be considered in a fair use analysis.
Despite Texaco's claims to the contrary, it is not unsound to conclude
that the right to seek payment for a particular use tends to [*931]
become legally cognizable under the fourth fair use factor when the means for
paying for such a use is made easier. This notion is not inherently troubling:
it is sensible that a particular unauthorized use should be considered "more
fair" when there is no ready market or means to pay for the use, while such an
unauthorized use should be considered "less fair" when there is a ready market
or means to pay for the use. The vice of circular reasoning arises only if the
availability of payment is conclusive against fair use. Whatever the situation
may have been previously, before the development of a market for institutional
users to obtain licenses to photocopy articles, see Williams & Wilkins, 487
F.2d at 1357-59, it is now appropriate to consider the loss of
licensing [**63] revenues in evaluating "the effect of the use upon
the potential market for or value of" journal articles. It is especially
appropriate to do so with respect to copying of articles from Catalysis, a
publication as to which a photocopying license is now available. We do not
decide how the fair use balance would be resolved if a photocopying license for
Catalysis articles were not currently available.
In two
ways, Congress has impliedly suggested that the law should recognize licensing
fees for photocopying as part of the "potential market for or value of" journal
articles. First, section 108 of the Copyright Act narrowly circumscribes the
conditions under which libraries are permitted to make copies of copyrighted
works. See 17 U.S.C. § 108. Though this section states that it does not in any
way affect the right of fair use, see id. § 108(f)(4), the very fact that
Congress restricted the rights of libraries to make copies implicitly suggests
that Congress views journal publishers as possessing the right to restrict
photocopying, or at least the right to demand a licensing royalty from nonpublic
institutions that engage in photocopying. Second, Congress
apparently [**64] prompted the development of CCC by suggesting that
an efficient mechanism be established to license photocopying, see S. Rep. No.
983, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 122 (1974); S. Rep. No. 473, 94th Cong., 1st Sess.
70-71 (1975); H.R. Rep. No. 83, 90th Cong., 1st Sess. 33 (1968). It is difficult
to understand why Congress would recommend establishing such a mechanism if it
did not believe that fees for photocopying should be legally recognized as part
of the potential market for journal articles.
Primarily
because of lost licensing revenue, and to a minor extent because of lost
subscription revenue, we agree with the District Court that "the publishers have
demonstrated a substantial harm to the value of their copyrights through
[Texaco's] copying," 802 F. Supp. at 21, and thus conclude that the fourth
statutory factor favors the publishers.
E. Aggregate
Assessment
We conclude that three of the four statutory
factors, including the important first and the fourth factors, favor the
publishers. We recognize that the statutory factors provide a nonexclusive guide
to analysis, see Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 560, but to whatever extent more
generalized equitable considerations are relevant, [**65] we are in
agreement with the District Court's analysis of them. See 802 F. Supp. at 21-27.
We therefore agree with the District Court's conclusion that Texaco's
photocopying of eight particular articles from the Journal of Catalysis was not
fair use.
Though we recognize the force of many
observations made in Judge Jacobs's dissenting opinion, we are not dissuaded by
his dire predictions that our ruling in this case "has ended fair-use
photocopying with respect to a large population of journals," ___ F.3d at ___,
or, to the extent that the transactional licensing scheme is used, "would seem
to require that an intellectual property lawyer be posted at each copy machine,"
id. at ___. Our ruling does not consider photocopying for personal use by an
individual. Our ruling is confined to the institutional, systematic, archival
multiplication of copies revealed by the record -- the precise copying that the
parties stipulated should be the basis for the District Court's decision now on
appeal and for which licenses are in fact available. And the claim that lawyers
need to be stationed at copy machines is belied by the ease with which music
royalties have been collected and distributed [**66] for performances
at thousands of cabarets, without the attendance of [*932]
intellectual property lawyers in any capacity other than as customers. If Texaco
wants to continue the precise copying we hold not to be a fair use, it can
either use the licensing schemes now existing or some variant of them, or, if
all else fails, purchase one more subscription for each of its researchers who
wish to keep issues of Catalysis on the office shelf.
Conclusion
The order of the District Court is
affirmed. n19
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Footnotes -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n19 Though
neither the limited trial nor this appeal requires consideration of the
publishers' remedy if infringement is ultimately found, we note that the context
of this dispute appears to make ill-advised an injunction, which, in any event,
has not been sought. If the dispute is not now settled, this appears to be an
appropriate case for exploration of the possibility of a court-imposed
compulsory license. See Campbell, 114 S. Ct. at 1171 n.10; 3 Nimmer on Copyright
§ 13.05[E][4][e], at 13-241 to 13-242.
- - - - - - - - - - - - End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- [**67]
DISSENTBY: JACOBS
DISSENT: JACOBS,
Circuit Judge, dissenting:
The stipulated facts crisply
present the fair use issues that govern the photocopying of entire journal
articles for a scientist's own use, either in the laboratory or as part of a
personal file assisting that scientist's particular inquiries. I agree with much
in the majority's admirable review of the facts and the law. Specifically, I
agree that, of the four nonexclusive considerations bearing on fair use
enumerated in section 107, the second factor (the nature of the copyrighted
work) tends to support a conclusion of fair use, and the third factor (the ratio
of the copied portion to the whole copyrighted work) militates against it. I
respectfully dissent, however, in respect of the first and fourth factors. As to
the first factor: the purpose and character of Dr. Chickering's use is integral
to transformative and productive ends of scientific research. As to the fourth
factor: the adverse effect of Dr. Chickering's use upon the potential market for
the work, or upon its value, is illusory. For these reasons, and in light of
certain equitable considerations and the overarching purpose of the copyright
laws, I conclude that [**68] Dr. Chickering's photocopying of the
Catalysis articles was fair use.
A. Purpose and
Character of the UseThe critical facts adduced by
the majority are that Dr. Chickering is a chemical engineer employed at a
corporate research facility who keeps abreast of developments in his field by
reviewing specialized scientific and technical journals, and who photocopies
individual journal articles in the belief that doing so will facilitate his
current or future professional research. ___ F.3d at ___. I agree with the
majority that the immediate goal of the photocopying was "to facilitate
Chickering's research in the sciences, an objective that might well serve a
broader public purpose." ___ F.3d at ___. The photocopying was therefore
integral to ongoing research by a scientist. In my view, all of the statutory
factors organize themselves around this fact. The four factors listed in section
107 (and reviewed one by one in the majority opinion) are considerations that
bear upon whether a particular use is fair; but those factors are informed by a
preamble sentence in section 107 that recites in pertinent part that "the fair
use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction [**69]
in copies . . . for purposes such as . . . scholarship, or research, is not an
infringement of copyright."
"There is a strong
presumption that factor one favors the defendant if the allegedly infringing
work fits the description of uses described in section 107." Wright v. Warner
Books, Inc., 953 F.2d 731, 736 (2d Cir. 1991). Much of our fair use case law has
been generated by the use of quotation in biographies, a practice that fits
"'comfortably within' the[] statutory categories 'of uses illustrative of uses
that can be fair.'" New Era Publications Int'l, ApS v. Carol Pub. Group (New Era
II), 904 F.2d 152, 156 (2d Cir.) (quoting Salinger v. Random House, Inc., 811
F.2d 90, 96 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 890, 98 L. Ed. 2d 177, 108 S. Ct.
213 (1987)), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 921 (1990)). The photocopying of journal
articles as part of ongoing scientific research fits just as squarely within the
scope of these illustrative fair uses. This court has stated on several
occasions: "'If a book falls into one of these categories [i.e.,
[*933] criticism, scholarship or research], assessment of the first
fair use factor should be at an end . . . .'" Wright, 953 F.2d at 736 (quoting
New Era [**70] II, 904 F.2d at 156 (quoting New Era Publications
Int'l, ApS v. Henry Holt & Co., 884 F.2d 659, 661 (2d Cir. 1989) (Miner, J.,
concurring in denial of rehearing in banc))). This is so "even though, as will
often be the case," the copyist "'anticipates profits.'" Wright, 953 F.2d at
736-7 (quoting New Era II, 904 F.2d at 156 (quoting Salinger, 811 F.2d at
96)).
The majority recognizes that photocopying puts
the articles into a "a useful format," ___ F.3d at ___, for use in a laboratory,
where the bound volume or whole journal would be cumbersome and subject to
damage, and that "these purposes might suffice to tilt the first fair use factor
in favor of Texaco if these purposes were dominant." ___ F.3d at ___. This view
modifies the district court's conclusion that fair use might allow the
photocopying of whole articles for use in the laboratory "if the original were
copied onto plastic paper so that it could be used in a wet environment, onto
metal so that it would resist extreme heat, onto durable archival paper to
prevent deterioration, or onto microfilm to conserve space . . . ." American
Geophysical Union v. Texaco Inc. 802 F. Supp. 1, 14 (1992). The
majority [**71] notes, however, that Dr. Chickering "did not even
have occasion to use five of the photocopied articles at all," ___ F.3d at ___,
and emphasizes that Dr. Chickering's photocopying was done to assemble a
personal file used, in Dr. Chickering's phrase, for "future retrieval and
reference." ___ F.3d at ___. The majority calls this the "predominant archival
purpose of the copying," ___ F.3d at ___, and therefore not in the nature of
research. In my view, the research function is far broader than the majority
opinion and the district court opinion contemplate.
Replication of laboratory experiments is of course a form of scientific
research, but it is not the whole or main part of it. Often, a researcher needs
to know what others have thought and done in order to steer clear of repetition
and dead ends, to evaluate theories and hypotheses for possible theoretical
development or commercial application, to give credit to others, and much else.
None of this requires a scientist to enter a laboratory. In any event, to
describe Dr. Chickering's file as "archival," as the majority does, is a
misnomer: an archive is ordinarily a bulk of documents accumulated by a
bureaucratic process and serving [**72] as a resource for public or
institutional reference. By contrast, Dr. Chickering's personal file contains
articles available for reference to assist the memory, curiosity and ongoing
inquiries of a single researcher. As such, it is part of a transformative
process of scientific research that has a long history.
The majority concludes that the photocopying was "done for the primary
purpose of providing Chickering with his own personal copy of each article,"
dismissively rejecting (in a footnote) Texaco's argument that the true, and
fundamental, purpose for the photocopying was research:
Though Texaco claims that its copying is for "research" as that
term is used in the preamble of section 107, this characterization might
somewhat overstate the matter. Chickering has not used portions of articles
from Catalysis in his own published piece of research, nor has he had to
duplicate some portion of copyrighted material directly in the course of
conducting an experiment or investigation. Rather, entire articles were copied
as an intermediate step that might abet Chickering's research.
___ F.3d at ___ n.7. In my view, it is no
overstatement to call this process research. [**73] I have
difficulty thinking of anything else to call it.
The scientific method, properly conceived, is much more than a system
of repeated laboratory experimentation. Rather, it is a dynamic process of
"planned co-operation of scientists, each of whom uses and continues the
investigations of his predecessors . . . ." Edgar Zilsel, "The Sociological
Roots of Science," in Hugh F. Kearney, ed. Origins of the Scientific Revolution,
97 (1968). The scientific journal is an essential tool in this incremental,
ongoing, transformative process. The physicist Peter L. Kapitza has noted the
central role that journals play in it:
The fundamental factor determining the collective work of
scientists is the organization of information exchange. The more effectively
this is carried out, the greater [*934] its scale and the more
intensively science develops. The most effective method of scientific
information up to date [sic] appears to be its dissemination through
periodicals, since one can most widely and quickly communicate the scientific
achievements in this way to a large number of interested
scientists.
Peter L. Kapitza,
Experiment, Theory, Practice, 173 (1980). Today there [**74] are some
200,000 scientific journals published worldwide. Id. at 174.
A use that is reasonable and customary is likely to be a fair one. See
Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539, 550, 85
L. Ed. 2d 588, 105 S. Ct. 2218 (1985) ("the fair use doctrine was predicated on
the author's implied consent to 'reasonable and customary' use"). The district
court, the majority and I start from the same place in assessing whether Dr.
Chickering's photocopying is a reasonable and customary use of the material:
making single photocopies for research and scholarly purposes has been
considered both reasonable and customary for as long as photocopying technology
has been in existence. See Williams & Wilkins Co. v. United States, 487 F.2d
1345, 1355-56, 203 Ct. Cl. 74 (Ct. Cl. 1973), aff'd by an equally divided court,
420 U.S. 376, 43 L. Ed. 2d 264, 95 S. Ct. 1344 (1976). The majority quotes the
district court's short answer to this important insight: "To the extent the
copying practice was 'reasonable' in 1973 [when Williams v. Wilkins was
decided], it has ceased to be 'reasonable' as the reasons that justified it
before [photocopying licensing] have ceased to exist." 802 F. Supp. at 25. I do
not agree at all that a reasonable and [**75] customary use becomes
unfair when the copyright holder develops a way to exact an additional price for
the same product. Moreover, I view the advent of the CCC as an event that bears
analytically upon the distinct question of whether Dr. Chickering's use
supersedes the original (the fourth factor). I therefore reach an
issue--reasonable and customary use--not explored by the district court or by
the majority.
Consider what Dr. Chickering actually
does with scientific journals. As a research scientist, he routinely sifts
through the latest research done by his peers, much of which is printed in
journals such as Catalysis. He determines which articles potentially assist his
specific trains of thought and lines of inquiry, and he photocopies them.
Relative to the volume of articles in each issue, his photocopying is
insubstantial. He then files the articles for possible future use or study. As
the majority observes, "before modern photocopying, Chickering probably would
have converted the original article into a more serviceable form by taking
notes, whether cursory or extended; today he can do so with a photocopying
machine." ___ F.3d at ___. The majority's footnote 10,
appended [**76] to this passage, questions whether or not a scholar's
handwritten copy of a full work is "necessarily" a fair use. As the majority
adds, however, Williams & Wilkins says:
It is almost unanimously accepted that a scholar can make a
handwritten copy of an entire copyrighted article for his own use, and in the
era before photoduplication it was not uncommon (and not seriously questioned)
that he could have his secretary make a typed copy for his personal use and
files. These customary facts of copyright-life are among our
givens.
Williams &
Wilkins, 487 F.2d at 1350. What Dr. Chickering does is simply a technologically
assisted form of note-taking, such as has long been customary among researchers:
the photocopy machine saves Dr. Chickering the toil and time of recording notes
on index cards or in notebooks, and improves the accuracy and range of the data,
charts, and formulas he can extract from the passing stream of information; but
the note-taking purpose remains the same.
The
anthropologist Bruno Latour spent two years studying scientists at the Salk
Institute for Biological Sciences. During the course of his study, he conducted
anthropological observations [**77] of a neurobiologist working on an
article for a journal. This scientist's desk was littered with copies of journal
articles authored by other scientists:
Xeroxed copies of articles, with words underlined and exclamation
marks in the margins, are everywhere. Drafts of articles in preparation
intermingle with diagrams [*935] scribbled on scrap paper, letters
from colleagues and reams of paper spewed out by the computer in the next
room; pages cut from articles are glued to other pages; excerpts from draft
paragraphs change hands between colleagues while more advanced drafts pass
from office to office being altered constantly, retyped, recorrected, and
eventually crushed into the format of this or that journal.
Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The
Social Construction of Scientific Facts, 49 (1979). One essential step toward
this drafting process is the accumulation over time of the journal articles that
reflect the current state of knowledge that the journal author seeks to advance.
Latour confirms that the photocopying of journal articles, and the use of them,
is customary and integral to the creative process of science.
The majority emphasizes that, as [**78] it happened, Dr.
Chickering did not "use" the photocopied articles because, in five out of eight
instances, he filed them away. There is nothing odd about making notes one does
not immediately use, or that one may never consult again. Photocopies, which to
Dr. Chickering are the functional counterpart of notes, are used (or not, as the
case may be) in the same way. Dr. Chickering's filing away of these photocopies
does not subvert his claim of fair use. Like the majority, I am convinced that
his deposit of the photocopied articles in his personal file, pending his
personal use of them in the future, is an important fact bearing upon fair use;
but the dominant significance of that fact, under the first factor of section
107, is that (whether he "uses" them or files them) the articles are not re-sold
or retailed in any way. If the copies were sold by Dr. Chickering, that would be
a telling--possibly determinative--fact. What Dr. Chickering has done reinforces
the view that his photocopying was not commercial in purpose or character.
The majority recognizes that, while the photocopying of
the Catalysis articles was "not technically a transformative use," there is
"significant independent [**79] value" in converting the articles to
a photocopied format. ___ F.3d at ___. Nevertheless, the majority concludes that
this transformative process does not militate in favor of fair use because of
the "predominant archival purpose". In my view, however, the "archival purpose"
is just a step in the process of taking and keeping notes, which should
ordinarily entail no transformation of the material. Good notes, being as
precise and copious as time allows, do not aspire to transform the original
text, but are useful in research only to the extent that they faithfully record
the original. Such notes, however, are important raw material in the synthesis
of new ideas. Accordingly, I find the nature and purpose of the use to be fully
transformative.
The majority emphasizes passim that the
photocopying condemned here is "systematic" and "institutional". These terms
furnish a ground for distinguishing this case from the case that the majority
expressly does not reach: the copying of journal articles by an individual
researcher outside an institutional framework. For all the reasons adduced
above, I conclude that the institutional environment in which Dr. Chickering
works does not alter [**80] the character of the copying done by him
or at his instance, and that the selection by an individual scientist of the
articles useful to that scientist's own inquiries is not systematic copying, and
does not become systematic because some number of other scientists in the same
institution--four hundred or four--are doing the same thing.
First, the majority's reliance on Texaco's institutional framework does
not limit the potentially uncontrolled ramifications of the result. Research is
largely an institutional endeavor nowadays, conducted by employees pursuing the
overall goals of corporations, university laboratories, courts and law firms,
governments and their agencies, think-tanks, publishers of newspapers and
magazines, and other kinds of institutions. The majority's limitation of its
holding to institutional environments may give comfort to inventors in bicycle
shops, scientists in garage laboratories, freelance book reviewers, and solo
conspiracy theorists, but it is not otherwise meaningful.
The majority's reliance on the systematic character of the photocopying
here also seems to me erroneous. The majority deems [*936] Texaco's
photocopying systematic because Texaco uses circulation [**81] lists
to route a copy of each journal issue to the scientists interested in the field.
The majority, however, ignores the one determinative issue: whether the decision
to photocopy individual articles is made by the individual researcher, as Dr.
Chickering did here. Journal issues may be systematically circulated to all
scientists in a given group, rather than (say) at random, but the circulation of
journal issues is not photocopying, systematic or otherwise. The journal issues
circulated by Texaco are procured by subscription. Once Texaco receives the
subscription copies from the publisher, Texaco is free to circulate them
in-house so that they can be seen by as many scientists as can lay eyes on them.
This circulation of copies allows individual scientists to select individual
articles for copying. The majority opinion, which leaves open the idea that this
practice may comport with copyright law if done by an individual scientist, does
not explain why it is impermissible when done by more than one.
The nature and purpose of the use is not affected by Texaco's size or
institutional nature, or by Texaco's circulation of its subscription journals to
its scientists. I therefore find [**82] that this factor weighs
clearly in favor of Texaco.
B. Effect Upon Potential
Market or ValueIn gauging the effect of Dr.
Chickering's photocopying on the potential market or value of the copyrighted
work, the majority properly considers two separate means of marketing: (1)
journal subscriptions and sales, and (2) licensing revenues and fees.
(1) Subscriptions and sales. The majority makes
clear that, considered solely in terms of journal subscriptions and sales, this
factor is a toss-up that may tip in the publisher's favor, but only after
teetering for a while: "At best, the loss of a few journal subscriptions tips
the fourth factor only slightly toward the publishers because evidence of such
loss is weak evidence that the copied articles themselves have lost any value."
___ F.3d at ___. The majority pointedly observes that no evidence is offered
that the photocopying at issue here, "if widespread, would impair the
marketability of journals . . . . " ___ F.3d at ___. Since Dr. Chickering's use
maximizes the utility of a Catalysis subscription for the only audience it is
ever likely to capture, I do not consider that the failure of proof in this
respect is an oversight [**83] by the publishers or their able
counsel.
As to the individual articles photocopied by
Dr. Chickering, I agree with the majority--as I read the opinion--that one
cannot put a finger on any loss suffered by the publisher in the value of the
individual articles or in the traditional market for subscriptions and back
issues. The district court found that Texaco would not purchase back-issues or
back volumes in the numbers needed to supply individual copies of articles to
individual scientists.
Finally, the circulation of
Catalysis among a number of Texaco scientists can come as no surprise to the
publisher of Catalysis, which charges double the normal subscription rate to
institutional subscribers. The publisher must therefore assume that, unless they
are reading Catalysis for pleasure or committing it to memory, the scientists
will extract what they need and arrange to copy it for personal use before
passing along the institutional copies.
(2)
Licensing Revenues and Fees. The majority states that "only an impact on
potential licensing revenues for traditional, reasonable, or likely to be
developed markets should be legally cognizable when evaluating a
secondary [**84] use's 'effect upon the potential market for or value
of the copyrighted work.'" ___ F.3d at ___. That statement of the law, with
which I fully agree, supports the conclusion that the availability of a CCC
license has little to do with fair use. The Supreme Court, in Harper & Row,
held that this fourth factor addresses "'use that supplants any part of the
normal market for a copyrighted work . . . .'" 471 U.S. at 568 (quoting S. Rep.
No. 473, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 65 (1975)). The Court has more recently declared,
in considering the fair use ramifications of parody, that "the market for
potential derivative uses includes only those that creators of original
[*937] works would in general develop or license others to develop."
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 127 L. Ed. 2d 500, 114 S. Ct. 1164, 1178
(1994). One factor deemed to make parody eligible for treatment as a fair use is
that copyright holders do not ordinarily license artistic criticisms of their
own works. However, even if authors were to seek to license these secondary
works, it is not clear that they would succeed, because the Court found the
secondary works to be a fair use: "when . . . the second use is transformative,
market substitution [**85] is at least less certain, and market harm
may not be so readily inferred." Id. at 1177.
In this
case the only harm to a market is to the supposed market in photocopy licenses.
The CCC scheme is neither traditional nor reasonable; and its development into a
real market is subject to substantial impediments. There is a circularity to the
problem: the market will not crystallize unless courts reject the fair use
argument that Texaco presents; but, under the statutory test, we cannot declare
a use to be an infringement unless (assuming other factors also weigh in favor
of the secondary user) there is a market to be harmed. At present, only a
fraction of journal publishers have sought to exact these fees. I would hold
that this fourth factor decisively weighs in favor of Texaco, because there is
no normal market in photocopy licenses, and no real consensus among publishers
that there ought to be one.
The majority holds that
photocopying journal articles without a license is an infringement. Yet it is
stipulated that (a) institutions such as Texaco subscribe to numerous journals,
only 30 percent of which are covered by a CCC license; (b) not all publications
of each CCC member are [**86] covered by the CCC licenses; and (c)
not all the articles in publications covered by the CCC are copyrighted. It
follows that no CCC license can assure a scientist that photocopying any given
article is legal. I will separately consider the Transactional Reporting Service
(the per-copy transactional license) and the Annual Authorization Service (the
blanket license). I confine my discussion here to scientists, although I note
that the record reflects CCC's intention to pursue licensing arrangements in
other sectors as well.
Under a transactional license,
the user must undertake copyright research every time an article is photocopied.
First, one must consult a directory to determine whether or not the publisher of
the journal is a member of the CCC. If it is, one must ascertain whether the
particular publication is one that is covered by the CCC arrangement, because
not all publications of participating publishers are covered. Then one must
somehow determine whether the actual article is one in which the publisher
actually holds a copyright, since there are many articles that, for such reasons
as government sponsorship of the research, are not subject to copyright. The
production [**87] director of plaintiff Springer-Verlag testified at
trial that it is almost impossible to tell which articles might be covered by a
copyright. Since even an expert has difficulty making such a determination, the
transactional scheme would seem to require that an intellectual property lawyer
be posted at each copy machine. Finally, once it is determined that the specific
article is covered, the copyist will need to record in a log the date, name of
publication, publisher, title and author of article, and number of pages
copied.
It may be easier to hand copy the material. The
transactions costs alone would compel users to purchase a blanket license.
However, if (as the majority holds) three of the fair use factors tip in favor
of the publishers even without considering the market for license fees, a
blanket license offers Texaco no safe harbor. Individual publishers remain free
to stand upon the rights conferred in this Court's opinion, and negotiate
separate licenses with separate terms, or sell offprints and refuse any license
at all. Unless each publisher's licensing rights are made to depend upon whether
or not that publisher participates in the CCC, we have the beginnings of
a [**88] total market failure: with many thousands of scientific
publications in circulation, a user cannot negotiate licensing fees individually
with numerous publishers--unless it does nothing else. For many publications,
licenses are simply not available. As to those, Dr. Chickering has the choice of
[*938] hand copying, typescript, or the photocopying of selected
pages only.
The blanket license fares no better. The
CCC license cannot confer absolution for the photocopying of articles published
by non-members of the CCC. Nor can the participating publishers properly collect
fees for the photocopying of articles for which they do not hold the copyright.
The district court found that there is currently a viable market for licensing,
chiefly for the following reasons:
(a) "Many of the largest corporations involved in research have
become licensees under a CCC Annual Authorization." 802 F. Supp. at 24.
However, until this case is decided, companies have had little choice but to
become licensees or defendants.
(b) The CCC has developed an Annual Authorization arrangement that
"permits free copying without any administrative burden of recordkeeping or
reporting." Id.. That system [**89] works, however, only if one
ignores the rights of publishers who are non-members of the CCC.
(c) "Publishers and individual users have . . . developed private
annual licensing agreements. For example, AT&T Bell Labs, in addition to
its membership in the CCC, has over 200 agreements with publishers covering
photocopying with respect to some 350 journals that are not registered with
the CCC. Furthermore, publishers have extended photocopying licenses to
document delivery services." Id. at 24-25.
These developments "(and the other parallel steps taken by the
owner-user communities)", satisfy the district court that "reasonably priced,
administratively tolerable licensing procedures are available . . . ." Id. at
25.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that the
existence of the CCC--or the perception that the CCC and other schemes for
collecting license fees are or may become "administratively tolerable"--is the
chief support for the idea that photocopying scholarly articles is unfair in the
first place. The majority finds it "sensible" that a use "should be considered
'less fair' when there is a ready market or means to pay for the use." ___ F.3d
at ___. That [**90] view is sensible only to a point. There is no
technological or commercial impediment to imposing a fee for use of a work in a
parody, or for the quotation of a paragraph in a review or biography. Many
publishers could probably unite to fund a bureaucracy that would collect such
fees. The majority is sensitive to this problem, but concludes that "the vice of
circular reasoning arises only if the availability of payment is conclusive
against fair use." ___ F.3d at ___. That vice is not avoided here. The majority
expressly declines to "decide how the fair use balance would be resolved if a
photocopying license for Catalysis articles were not currently available." ___
F.3d at ___. Moreover, the "important" fourth factor, ___ F.3d at ___, tips in
favor of the publishers (according to the majority) "primarily because of lost
licensing revenue" and only "to a minor extent" on the basis of journal sales
and subscriptions. ___ F.3d at ___.
I do not agree with
the majority that the publishers "have created, primarily through the CCC, a
workable market for institutional users to obtain licenses for the right to
produce their own copies of individual articles via photocopying." ___ F.3d
at [**91] ___. By the CCC's admission, in its correspondence with the
Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, "the mechanism for the negotiation
of a photocopy license fee is often not even in place. . . . Nor can it be said
that CCC's current licensing programs have adequately met the market's needs."
n1 There is nothing workable, and there is no market.
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n1
Letter from R. Bruce Rich, Weil, Gotshal & Manges (as counsel
to CCC) to Thomas H. Liddle, Antitrust Division, United States Department of
Justice (February 2, 1992) (filed as part of supplementation of record,
pursuant to motion granted on October 12, 1993).
- - - - - - - - - - - - End Footnotes-
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Even if the CCC is or becomes
workable, the holder of a CCC blanket license is not thereby privileged to
photocopy journal articles published by non-members of the CCC, as to which
articles there is no "ready market or means to pay for the fair use". See ___
F.3 at ___. This Court has ended fair-use photocopying with respect to a large
population [*939] of journals, but the CCC mechanism
allows [**92] fair-use photocopying only of some of them. The facts
before us demonstrate that the holder of a blanket license must still deal
separately with CCC-member Bell Labs as to certain hundreds of its publications.
With respect to the journals for which the publishers do not market licenses,
users will either (a) research which publications are in this category and copy
them longhand, in typescript or in partial photocopy, or (b) ignore our fair-use
doctrine as unworkable. Neither option serves scientific inquiry or respect for
copyright. In any event, it seems to me that when a journal is used in a
customary way--a way that the authors uniformly intend and wish--the user should
not be subjected on a day to day basis to burdens that cannot be satisfied
without a team of intellectual property lawyers and researchers.
The fourth factor tips decidedly in Texaco's favor because there is no
appreciable impairment of the publishing revenue from journal subscriptions and
sales; because the publisher captures additional revenue from institutional
users by charging a double subscription price (and can presumably charge any
price the users will pay); and because the market for licensing is
cumbersome [**93] and unrealized.
C.
Equitable ConsiderationsThe fair use doctrine is
an "equitable rule of reason." Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios,
464 U.S. 417, 448 & n.31, 78 L. Ed. 2d 574, 104 S. Ct. 774 (1984). Applying
the doctrine requires a case-by-case review that includes the four factors
listed in section 107; but the statutory list is not exhaustive or exclusive.
See Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 549. The purpose of this equitable rule is
"'to avoid rigid application of the copyright statute when, on occasion, it
would stifle the very creativity which that law is designed to foster.'" Harper
& Row, 471 U.S. at 550 n.3 (quoting Iowa State University Research
Foundation, Inc. v. American Broadcasting Cos., 621 F.2d 57, 60 (2d Cir.
1980)).
"'The author's consent to a reasonable use of
his copyrighted works has always been implied by the courts as a necessary
incident of the constitutional policy of promoting the progress of science and
the useful arts, since a prohibition of such use would inhibit subsequent
writers from attempting to improve upon prior works and thus . . . frustrate the
very ends sought to be attained.'" Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 549 (quoting H.
Ball, Law of Copyright [**94] and Literary Property 260 (1944)). "The
fair use doctrine [is] predicated on the author's implied consent to 'reasonable
and customary' use when he releases his work for public consumption . . . ." Id.
at 550. All facts bearing upon the terms of that consent are germane to this
analysis.
The single fact that evidences the fair use
expectation of the people whose creativity Congress seeks to stimulate, is that
they give away their copyright in order to promote their work, their ideas and
their reputations. The district court found that the "publishers do not pay
authors money to publish their articles . . . ." American Geophysical, 802 F.
Supp. at 26. The majority finds, "no form of money payment is ever provided to
authors whose works are published." ___ F.3d at ___; see also id. at ___
("Publishers do not make any payment to authors for the right to publish their
articles or to acquire their copyrights . . . .").
This
is not to say, however, that the authors derive no benefit from the use of their
works. To the contrary: "The authors derive benefit from the publication of
their works far more important than any small royalty the traffic might bear."
American [**95] Geophysical, 802 F. Supp. at 26. The authors of
scientific articles work and publish in order to gain distinction, appointment,
resources, tenure. But they seek and derive absolutely no direct cash benefit
from publication. It seems to me that this fact is of great importance: it means
that, so long as the copyright system assures sufficient revenue to print and
distribute scientific journals, the level of copyright revenue is not among the
incentives that drive the authors to the [*940] creative acts that
the copyright laws are intended to foster.
As to this
issue, the majority adopts the district court's view that it is "irrelevant"
because the authors have assigned the copyright to publishers who risk capital
to achieve the wide dissemination of the articles that the authors want and
need. 802 F. Supp. at 27. The district court greatly overstates the case in
concluding that "once an author has assigned her copyright, her approval or
disapproval of photocopying is of no further relevance." Id. As a commercial
proposition, that is unassailable. But equitable considerations under the
copyright law justify an inquiry into the incentives for creating the work here,
the scientific journal [**96] articles. See Harper & Row, 471
U.S. at 550 n.3 (equitable rule of reason permits inquiry into whether "rigid
application of the copyright statute . . . would stifle the very creativity
which that law is designed to foster."). "'The immediate effect of our copyright
law is to secure a fair return for an 'author's' creative labor. But the
ultimate aim is, by this incentive, to stimulate artistic creativity for the
general public good.'" Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc., 127 L. Ed. 2d 455, 114 S. Ct.
1023, 1029 (1994) (quoting Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken, 422 U.S. 151,
156, 45 L. Ed. 2d 84, 95 S. Ct. 2040 (1975)). To that end, we are reminded that:
"The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of
authors, but 'to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.' To this
end, copyright assures authors the right to their original expression, but
encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a
work."
114 S. Ct. at 1030
(quoting Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340,
349-50, 113 L. Ed. 2d 358, 111 S. Ct. 1282 (1991)).
The
CCC's licensing fees unquestionably benefit the copyright holders, but no
argument has been made that this additional revenue will fuel
scientific [**97] creativity. According to Kapitza, "every 10-15
years, the number of journals doubles and it has now reached the imposing number
of 200,000." Experiment, Theory, Practice at 174. This proliferation of journals
has been accomplished through sales and subscriptions. Clearly, the incentives
currently in place for journal publishing assure a fair return, or else we would
not see the exponential growth in scientific journals reported by Kapitza. Under
the current system, publishers sell journals and subscriptions. They can, and
do, charge institutional users more money, and are free to charge what they
like.
Since the copyright laws seek to stimulate
creativity, we should consider the incentives chiefly from the perspective of
the authors and scientists. It has been recognized by this Court that in the
scientific community, "what is valuable [to the authors] is recognition because
it so often influences professional advancement and academic tenure." Weissmann
v. Freeman, 868 F.2d 1313, 1324 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 883, 107 L.
Ed. 2d 172, 110 S. Ct. 219 (1989). From their point of view, then, what is truly
important is the wide dissemination of their works to their colleagues.
The incentives [**98] for scientific
publication have been in place since the project of science began to be
perceived as a cooperative venture more than three centuries ago. See E. Zilsel,
"The Sociological Roots of Science," in Hugh F. Kearney, ed., Origins of the
Scientific Revolution, at 97 (1968) ("In his Nova Atlantis Bacon depicted an
ideal state in which technological and scientific progress is reached by planned
co-operation of scientists, each of whom uses and continues the investigations
of his predecessors and fellow workers."). n2 Scientists communicate through
[*941] journals, and use them to stake claims to new ideas,
disseminate their ideas, and advance their careers and reputations. These
"authors have a far greater interest in the wide dissemination of their work
than in royalties . . . ." American Geophysical, 802 F. Supp. at 27. That,
evidently, is why they do not seek or expect royalties, and that is why
licensing fees cannot be expected to increase or diminish their creativity or
their drive to publish. The majority's ruling on fair use will add to the cost,
time and effort that scientists spend to scan, keep and use journal articles,
and will therefore tend to diminish the [**99] only reward that the
authors seek from publication.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - Footnotes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
n2
The Royal Society of London, founded in 1662, was the first to
give institutional validity to the Baconian principles of verified
experimentation and public reporting of theories and experimental results. See
William Eamon, "From the Secrets of Nature to Public Knowledge," reprinted in
David C. Lindberg and Robert S. Westman, eds. Reappraisals of the Scientific
Revolution, at 349-57 (1991). The "ideal of cooperative research" allowed
scientists to approach their work more methodically, and the project of
science evolved into the system of experimentation, reporting, verification,
and modification that is the scientific method. Id. The first scientific
journal, Philosophical Transactions, was published in London in the 1660s. A.
Rupert Hall, The Revolution in Science, 1500-1700, 230-31 (1983). The
publisher, Henry Oldenburg, "created the scientific journal and the scientific
paper as a means of communication," providing a vehicle for international
communication between scientists about the results of their experiments. Id.
at 231. In Philosophical Transactions, "frequent controversies over moot
theoretical issues directed experimental interest to the testing of the
conflicting theories; new hypotheses were broadcast; recent scientific works
were critically reviewed; and plans for initiating research along certain
lines were made public." Robert K. Merton, Science, Technology & Society
in Seventeenth Century England, 224 (1978).
- - - - - - - - - - - - End Footnotes- - - - - - - - - - -
- - - [**100]
Nowhere in the case law is
there support for the proposition that the monopoly granted by copyright is
designed to ensure the holder a maximum economic return; rather, the law's
purpose is to balance competing interests--assuring the author a fair return,
while permitting creative uses that build upon the author's work. See, e.g.,
Fogerty, 114 S. Ct. at 1029 ("While it is true that one of the goals of the
Copyright Act is to discourage infringement, it is by no means the only goal of
that Act. . . . 'The immediate effect of our copyright law is to secure a fair
return for an 'author's' creative labor. But the ultimate aim is, by this
incentive, to stimulate artistic creativity . . . .'") (quoting Twentieth
Century Music, 422 U.S. at 156 (1975)); Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 546 ("The
rights conferred by copyright are designed to assure contributors to the store
of knowledge a fair return for their labors."). More fundamentally, Dr.
Chickering's photocopying is part of a creative enterprise that Dr. Chickering
conducts in common with the authors of the articles. For that reason, and the
others stated in this dissent, I conclude that Dr. Chickering's
photocopying [**101] of isolated journal articles to assist his own
research inquiries is fair use.