Intellectual Property Law Paragraph

BU451

Michael Geist's Blog Paragraph

Robin Noronha

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Copyright issues arise when published work photocopying occurs. Recently in Michael Geist's blog he discusses an arising case which involves Staples/the Business Depot and Access Copyright. The lawsuit states that unauthorized customer copying occurs in Staples/the Business Depot stores. Access Copyright has launched a $10 million lawsuit against Staples/The Business Depot for unauthorized copying by store customers. (Geist, 2007) It appears though that the issue of photocopying copyrighted material has already been dealt with in the legal realm. The last time the court addressed the question of photocopying and copyright, the publishers lost badly, with the court ruling that libraries are entitled to presume that their facilities are being used lawfully. (Geist, 2007) The notion of fair dealing also is applied in these cases. Moreover, the Court ruled that fair dealing is a user right that should not be unduly constrained. (Geist, 2007) Therefore the question is whether Staples/The Business Depot knowingly allow customer to copy copyrighted material. The argument of assuming that the facilities are used lawfully reappears and the notion of fair dealing. Staples will likely argue that it has not authorized infringement since it is entitled to presume that its facilities are being used lawfully and that much of the copying on its premises is either personal (ie. the copyright holder is the copier) or being done for research or private study purposes and therefore qualifies as fair dealing. (Geist, 2007) An argument can arise that if employees are copying for customers without questioning the intention, but this situation does not seem likely to prove. Unless Access Copyright has some damaging evidence to the contrary, the Supreme Court's