Bulkpack law leaving profs without texts

A May federal court ruling is preventing many students from starting their classes with assigned bulkpacks and is driving up bulkpack prices by as much as 50 cents a page. The ruling requires copy centers to secure written permission from publishers before compiling individual copyrighted works into bulkpacks. Professors and students have both complained the new system is inefficient and costly, and many are still waiting for the readers to be completed since flooded publishers can take weeks to respond and often charge royalties. Prior to the ruling on Basic Books vs. Kinko's Graphics Corporation, many of the works were printed in bulkpacks without publisher consent because photocopy centers felt they fell under the "fair use" clause of 1976 copyright laws. According to Adrianna Foss, a spokesperson for Kinko's national organization, local stores used to review all copyrighted materials to be included in a bulkpack and determine which documents required permission. "Since the lawsuit decision, copy centers, like Kinko's, can not make any decisions on fair use," Foss said last night. "We have to get permission for everything." She added that publisher demands for royalties on the copyrighted materials have driven prices even higher, and there is no limit to prices publishers can demand. "The prices vary greatly," Mark Drake, Campus Copy Center Permissions Manager said yesterday. "The least is no charge -- but hold on to your seat -- some are as high as 50 cents a page." And The Chronicle of Higher Education reported this week that royalties can run up to one dollar a page. On campus, the ruling has forced many professors to go without bulkpacks since the beginning of the semester. Associate Linguistics Professor Anthony Kroch said yesterday the copy centers are now asking professors to bring in bulkpack materials earlier so they can send out permission requests. "It's a mess," Kroch said. "This would mean that it would need to be done six or eight weeks ahead of time and that is a long time [in advance] to have a course plan done." Kroch added that he personally photocopied the readings for the first class. Since he does not have the budget to continue this practice, he is placing the materials on reserve in Rosengarten. But some professors said that getting rid of bulkpacks and simply putting all the readings on reserve would not solve the problem, because there are not an adequate number of editions to meet the would-be demand. "I have always had the books on reserve for students who did not want to buy [the bulkpack]," Political Science Professor Oliver Williams said this week. "But, this could cause me difficulty, since I have always relied on a split in the class." Williams said delay has not hurt his classes since the bulkpacks are not part of the syllabus until several weeks into the semester. "[My bulkpack] doesn't kick in until two or three weeks," Williams said. "But, other classes, I think, are in real trouble." Some students said this week they are disappointed they will have to go to Rosengarten when they are used to the convenience of reading a bulkpack at home. "In my communications class it may mean we have to go to Rosengarten all of the time," College Sophomore Mark Lenker said earlier this week. Class size is also a new element in the price efficiency of using a bulkpack, according to Associate Anthropology Professor Alan Mann. Mann said since his copy center charges for each permission request, the price per bulkpack is higher when there are smaller classes. "When it is divided evenly among the students of my larger class, the additional price is low," Mann said. "But, for my class that has six or seven students, that is too expensive." Foss said Kinko's charges $15 per request, and that fee plus royalty charges are divided equally among the packets. Stan Shapiro, the owner of the two local Campus Copy Centers, said yesterday his photocopy center files permission requests free of charge and that only the royalty charges are divided equally among the bulkpacks. Some students said they are also upset that the courses may lose some of the best readings because of the bulkpack crackdown. "From what it sounds like, we may not get to do some of the readings which seemed pretty interesting," College junior Jennifer Hermann said earlier this week. Both copy centers have developed elaborate systems to cope with the newly-enforced regulations, that involve hi-tech computer networking and faxes. Foss said Kinko's has established "blanket agreements" for 800 book titles and over 1000 journals, which allow them to bypass permission requests for those documents. Professors that request documents that have not established agreements with Kinko's often have their request funnelled to Kinko's national headquarters in Ventura, Calif., which works to secure the rights. Campus Copy Center has developed a computer system that relays permission requests via fax and modem to publishers across the country. "Our program automatically generates letters for the publishers," Drake, who graduated from the College in 1979, said. "It the most extensive [permission request] system this side of the river." Both companies said the newly enforced regulations have been keeping them "very busy." South Asian Regional Studies Professor Peter Gaeffke said the industry is in a transition stage and that bugs will either have to be worked out or a new system should be developed. "We have to explore what the law allows us to do or help to develop a new system," Gaeffke said earlier this week. "It is a legal problem that has ramifications for everyone, but is too large for a single university to explore." Gaeffke added that in Germany there is a central system which collects the money and transmits it to the appropriate writers.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.