Supreme Court Hears Copyright Case

The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday for a case that may have implications for the recently formed library consortium between the Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and New York Public library systems.

The case, Williams and Wilkins Co. v. the United States, involves the "fair use" doctrine of copyright law. Fair use suspends the payment of royalties and permission fees in certain situations where copyrighted material is used. The original purpose of the doctrine was to assist individual scholars in their research.

No Compensation

Williams and Wilkins has brought suit against the National Institutes of Health and the National Medical Library for photocopying articles from the company's journals and distributing them without compensation.

The purpose of the Research Libraries group, the consortium to which Harvard belongs, is to "provide improved access for the users of each library to resources in the other three," according to the Annual Report of the Director of the University Library.

The consortium intends to make resources available partly by photocopying materials.

Townsend Hoopes, a lawyer who filed an amicus curiae brief for the Association of American Publishers in behalf of Williams and Wilkins, said yesterday: "What has been happening is that hundreds of copies of articles are made and distributed. It amounts to a reprinting and republishing operation in violation of copyright laws."

James E. Skipper, who will head the Research Libraries Group consortium that includes Harvard, said yesterday that "If the issue is enjoining photocopying, then there are broad implications. It will simply be a large inconvenience for readers."

Rutherford Rogers, head of the Yale University library system, said yesterday that the ruling "will have less relevance to our group" than to other library systems. "If there are photocopies a lot will be of originals too fragile to send through the mail or by delivery service. It won't hurt the libraries as much as individual scholars," he said.

Douglas W. Bryant, University Librarian, said yesterday that the Supreme Court case is a "very important and complex" question. He declined to discuss the case further.