Copy works in the public domain? National Indian hut to help you

About copyright as a way to restrict access to information on Habré is often written. However, this trend has a different way of implementation, which is to make it difficult to use information that is already in the public domain, thus copyright not controlled. This refers to information that, when not digitized and not posted on the Web, is stored in numerous libraries and archives of our state.

Observations from his own life.
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For about fifteen years I have been visiting the Russian State Library (ex. Leninka). During the mentioned non-short period, I observed how the order of copying materials in it was changing. In which direction, judge for yourself: the tragicomedy in seven acts from the life of a qualified Russian reader is attached. I don’t write chronology due to the fact that I’m afraid to make a mess of it, but I vouch for general truthfulness.

Act 1st. Duration: about fifteen years ago. For copying materials were used not copiers, and some other copiers. Actually, I did not see the devices themselves: the receptionist took the books and sent them to the lower floor on a special elevator. I remember that it took about two hours to wait for the fulfillment of the order, and the copies were made on special thin paper, resembling cigarette paper. Some kind of blueprint was applied, in short.

The ancients and relatively cheap blueprints were used only once. Apparently, I got on a sharp jump in inflation, when prices for copying did not have time to increase. To celebrate, I ordered a reproduction of a dozen pages: the receptionist was visibly upset, but accepted the order. The next day, when I arrived at the same collection point with new books, the blueprint was closed for technical reasons - forever. My overwhelming order was the last argument for the modernization of production.

I didn’t have to get upset: in Leninka there were already points in which the materials were multiplied on ordinary copiers.

Act 2 There were two photocopying points, each with two xeroxes. Production facilities were loaded to the full in the presence of two female operators and the simultaneous absence of technical malfunctions of the copiers. Such coincidences happened infrequently, but they did.

Despite the relatively high cost, it was the heyday of scientific activity. For absolutely the same price as on the street, it was possible to get a copy of the material needed in scientific activity. Since many people copied not separate pages, but entire books, there was no rejection from clients (professors, graduate students, students): the copiers always had a queue. The fulfillment of the order had to wait less: a maximum of an hour and a half, - and in the absence of a queue, it was executed in minutes.

Act 3 Points of photocopying has become more. On the one hand, it is wonderful - the queues evaporated completely - however, the price of photocopies went up. Scanning a page in Leninka was somehow one and a half more expensive than in any street institution. Probably in the form of a culture tax, on the principle: if you are so smart, pay.

Fortunately, there was - and maybe existed before, I just discovered it later - a great alternative to photocopying: scanning. The reader was provided with a computer workplace, prices were set at a time, how many rubles there per hour. Despite the low capacity of the library scanner, it came out much cheaper than photocopying, not to mention the convenience of scanning the material itself.

One problem: all readers of the Russian State Library accounted for a single scanner. Given the paid nature of the service, a bit strange, isn't it? Again I had to stand in queues, and sometimes postpone scanning the next day. Well, the reader is no stranger to what problems.

Act 4th. In points of photocopying set differentiated prices, depending on the year of publication of the book. It is clear: to open the book of 1950 - some labor costs, and the same volume of the book of 1850 - very, very different.

Not to say that price differentiation lasted long in Leninka, but it lasted as much as possible, with a little change possible. Or perhaps it was forever, just I, along with the rest of the readers, switched to scanning materials. It was natural, because time-based tariffs were kept plus — you won’t believe it! - in the computer department a second scanner appeared, more powerful than the first.

Act 5th. Happiness did not last long: civil legislation in terms of copyright was updated.

Law-abiding Leninka responded in an interesting way: the computer department began to prohibit scanning of books protected by copyright. Viewed all the books that the reader brought with him, and selected prohibited to scan. The reader picked up books at the end of the work, at the exit from the computer room.

Did Leninka have this right, the big question. As far as I understand, scanning the new Civil Code for personal purposes does not preclude it. One thing is scanning the material, another is its use: if I am mistaken, let the lawyers correct me. In any case, there was no point in discussing legal conflicts with employees of the computer department, because they were savvy much worse than readers in legal matters.

"Not allowed" - all that you could hear from them.

Ironically, the books that were denied scanning in the computer department were accepted without question at photocopying points. It turned out traditionally more expensive, but then everyone decided for himself what he needed: money or information.

Act 6th. The heels of commercial photocopying centers, which fully covered the copying needs of readers of the Russian State Library, were combined into one reproduction center. I think they did not unite, but dispersed, instead of organizing a similar commercial office under a single roof, but for the readers it looked like a union.

I remember that before this action a questionnaire was distributed among the “parishioners” with questions about how they relate to the formation of a single reproduction center and whether they want to get a relaxation center instead. I wrote something like: “I don’t object to a single center, provided that commerce stops at readers”, they listened to the first part of my wish, but skipped the second part.

As it was possible to assume in advance, the prices in the specialized photocopier office Leninki did not lower.

Act 7th. We got to the current sad position.

Scanning of books in the computer department is stopped, the reproduction center has become a monopoly reproduction point of documentation. With your monopoly prices, what do you think?

It is now impossible to scan the book yourself: this is done by regular “specialists”. Ask for 10 rubles. per page. Thus, scanning a thin brochure of a hundred pages will cost the reader ... read for yourself: 50 turns (if you are lucky, a standard-size brochure) of 10 rubles each. = Exactly 500 rubles. Plus a fee for copying a file to my flash drive. How much do you think it is worth copying a file to a client’s USB flash drive? 20 rub. So you know.

It is strictly forbidden to copy with the help of our own technical equipment in Leninka, as in other libraries and archives, who would doubt. It has always been forbidden.

Do you know what I think about all this? [Pee pee pee pee] - that's what I think about it. According to my ideas, for 500 rubles. (or slightly more expensive) you can not only scan, but also print out high quality and bind a hundred-page brochure on demand.

This is in Leninka, which has always been an order of magnitude better than other libraries and archives, not only in terms of the stored volumes of literature, but also in its accessibility to the reader! I tell you for sure, in other places it is much worse. I remember a few years ago in one of the archives for the scan of an ordinary page I was asked a thousand rubles. To a bewildered exclamation, and whether the state organization was demanding expensive, the librarian explained without a hint of irony:
“To work on a scanner requires a very large qualification.”

Hello, no one needs specialists to copy files (20 rubles per copied file) or to work on a scanner (1000 rubles per scanned page)?

Fifteen years of technical progress to the dog: they came to the point where they started - to copy the book (in the public domain, I draw your attention!) The average reader can not afford. I, anyway. If some time ago I could afford myself for 50 rubles. scan the brochure and put it in public access, then pay ten times more, sorry, not able to.

Compared to what was ten or fifteen years ago, now in the Russian State Library desolation: neither gray-haired professors, nor anxious graduate students, nor ruddy students are seen — occasionally run one or the other, and again peace and quiet, but God's grace only unoccupied librarians scurry back and forth. According to my personal observations, there are five times less visitors. Of course, some readers dropped out in connection with the development of networked computer technologies, but many — oh, many! - discarded from visiting the library prices. Indeed, Leninka is still full of un-digitized material that cannot be found on the Web. It remains to rewrite the information with pens in the school notebook, just like in the old days. The entrance to the library is still free - I don’t know if the bosses are thinking about this embarrassing omission: the paid issue of books would be a logical continuation of the policy pursued by it.

In this regard, I am addressing several rhetorical sentences to our Russian state. I understand that no one will listen to my mouse squeak , but I have no other way to express my opinion.

1. I propose to digitize the materials of all - everyone, you hear! - libraries and archives. But the state has money for all [pee-pee-pee-pee], let it be found for culture.
All non-confidential and non-copyrighted materials should be made publicly available.

2. While books are not digitized, visitors of libraries and archives should be allowed to copy unclassified materials using their technical means. The only thing that state libraries have the right to demand at the same time: the transfer of the copy made in their favor.

3. Modern publishers should transfer digital copies of their products to libraries. For non-transfer - a fine in the amount of the cost of scanning the book.
A year or two ago, such a requirement was present in some kind of draft law, but it was wrapped up under the label that right holders might suffer. Some writers were attracted to the protests, I don’t remember: they were afraid that they would lose money, because the libraries are not able to ensure the safety of the files. A ridiculous argument: as if the only way to make a digital copy of a book is to steal a library file, and digitizing a book after buying it in a store is absolutely impossible.

Such sentences, in short.

PS If anyone is interested: the idea to write this post came after I gave 350 blood rubles for 33 scanned pages. Required pages are posted on Habré simultaneously with the current post ( here ). That's right they say: no good deed goes unpunished. Some publish information in the public domain, others seem to earn a lot on seemingly free information, no copyright is required. To each his own.