You’ve read all the guidance that there is about copyright, fair use and making photocopies in libraries, and yet you still don’t feel 100% sure on where you stand with your particular usage intentions. It turns out that there might be a good reason for the lingering confusion.
Rick Anderson’s recent piece in “The Scholarly Kitchen” reveals that U.S. libraries are obliged by the U.S. Copyright Office to assert an erroneous interpretation of U.S. Copyright Law that leaves users with fewer rights in how library-supplied photocopies are used as opposed to photocopies supplied from elsewhere. What’s more, the U.S. Copyright Office is not readily owning up to or rectifying this misinterpretation. Read more at https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2023/07/05/why-does-the-u-s-copyright-office-require-libraries-to-lie-to-users-about-their-fair-use-rights-they-wont-say/.