[Athen] [ATHEN] Audio cds

[Kelmer, Susan M.]

>Oh I so wish it was even close to being that black and white, 

>my life would be much less interesting.  

>

>What is legal or illegal is a discussion to have with the 

>legal respresentative of your institution, and what they have 

>to say is what you should follow. 

>Anything else is just opinion because there is no case law to 

>make an actual legal determination from.


Thanks for that response, Ron.  I just didn't know what to say to that.
There IS NO case law for us to go on.  Many of us are committing acts of
civil disobedience in producing books for students in an audio (or
other) format.  We go to great lengths to assure that the student has
appropriate documentation indicating that audio books are a correct
provision.  We make sure the student buys the book and surrenders their
receipt from the bookstore.  We attempt to obtain publisher permissions
in order to produce the alternate format.  We keep the alternate format
as a resource of our campus and the student is required to return it at
the end of the semester just like any other campus resource.  We are
following what appears to be the intent of the law, if not the very
letter of the law, and we have, thus far, not been challenged.  I
believe that right now, student rights/equal access trump any copyright
law in place currently.  

It is a very very fine line we walk.  But I walk it for my students, who
need me to be proactive and yes, a bit civilly disobedient, so that they
can have their materials for class just like all other students do.

-Susan Kelmer