Copyright Suit Spotlights College-Area Copy Centers

The battle against copyright infringement, which lately has focused on stamping out online music and movie piracy, is still being waged on another front: the off-campus bookstore.

The New York Times and four other publishers said Monday that they sued KB Books, a San Diego chain that caters to college students, alleging that the company repeatedly failed to obtain the rights to reproduce and sell copies of content used in its so-called course packs, which are compilations of reading materials assigned by instructors.

The suit is the latest effort by publishers to staunch what has long been an outlet for the unauthorized sale of copyrighted material. Copyright infringement lawsuits against bookstores and copy centers near college campuses date back at least 30 years. The arguments wielded by the plaintiffs in the San Diego case are familiar to any student of the genre.

“When copyrights are not respected, it has a direct and adverse impact on innovation and creativity,” said Allan Ryan, director of the Intellectual Property division of Harvard Business School Publishing and one of the plaintiffs. “It is vital for individuals and businesses to recognize that disregard for copyright law is not only illegal, it also stifles progress.”

The plaintiffs allege that KB Books does a substantial business in creating course packs, which typically include articles from journals and chapters from books. KB has bookstores near San Diego State University, Mesa College and San Diego City College, although most of the course packs in question were for courses taught at SDSU.

The suit is seeking unspecified damages.

Typically, “copy shops,” as they are known in the industry, make photocopies of material selected by an instructor and bind the collection of works into a customized course pack, which they then sell to students for a profit, the suit says. The copier is supposed to get permission after paying a fee to reproduce the material. Increasingly, copiers use Copyright Clearance Center Inc., a Massachusetts agency created in 1978 to streamline the process. Copyright Clearance is a plaintiff in the suit.

The suit alleges that KB has “been engaged in routine and systematic reproduction of materials from plaintiffs’ publications, without seeking permission.” The claim also alleges that KB printed on some of the course packs that it had obtained the proper permission when it hadn’t.

“We are taking the allegations very seriously,” KB Books’ attorney William Eigner said. “I do know they obtained permission for some of the material in question, and I don’t know if they got it for all [the material] but we are investigating that.”

“From what I know in the industry,” Eigner added, “sometimes these things are innocently overlooked or delayed because of the rush and press of what the professor wants and what the student needs.”

In suits such as the one against KB Books, the main contention is “that by duplicating these materials without obtaining the permission of the publishers, the person doing the photocopying is directly impacting the market for the original material,” said Nicholas Crincoli, a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property laws.

After a number of high-profile lawsuits in the 1970s against copy centers and universities by publishers, the Copyright Clearance Center was created to act as a licensing agents for publishers. Publishers can register their articles with the center as being available for photocopying.

“As far as I’m aware, it’s doing its job,” Crincoli said.

In 1991, copy center operator Kinko’s settled a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by eight textbook publishers; the agreement cost the copy store operator $1.9 million in damages and court costs.

Over the last year, the pace of suits against college-area book shops for failing to pay copyright fees picked up, and last month, Copyright Clearance Center, working with its publisher clients, sued two document deliverers who specialize in medical article reprints.

For KB Books, preparation of such materials represents a “small fraction” of its business, which is primarily a bookstore that operates in a highly competitive and pressure-filled niche, Eigner said.

“Especially with the course materials, there are many situations where you have a short time frame,” he said. “The professor gives you a list of materials he wants provided, and he’ll tell you a few weeks before or a week before. The bookstore is faced with trying to get all the consents and approvals as soon as they can.”

“They often sell these packs at cost without profit,” he added.

Other plaintiffs in the case are Elsevier Inc., Pearson Education Inc. and John Wiley & Sons Inc.

KB Books owner Kenneth S. Appel also is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which was filed last month in U.S. District Court in San Diego.