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Re: PDF Accessibility and Copyright

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From: chaals
Date: Sep 1, 2016 12:15PM

+1 to everything Tim said. In particular, ask your legal department at the university. That's what they're paid for. Or the risk management division of the administration.

I'm not a lawyer, but I have come across this question. It depends in part where you are. In Australia, for example, you need to go through a stupid pile of legal hoops before you have the right to deal with the content - and every single time you make it available to someone. In the US and many other places, under the Marrakech treaty, you generally have a right to simply go right ahead, so long as what you are doing cannot be construed as actually just publishing stuff you have no right to publish.

Note that I am not sure how the DMCA applies in the US or countries who have adopted its terrible legal framework by treaty. It provides specific penalties for circumventing copy protection.

cheers

Chaals

01.09.2016, 19:57, "Tim Harshbarger" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >:
> Any time copyright is involved, I would suggest seeking advice from an attorney. Something tells me that whether or not you can alter those other documents might have something to do with the type of permission you were given and how they are being used.
>
> Another option is to reach out to those organizations and check to see if they are ok with extending you permission to make those documents accessible--it is also possible that they might have already done that work for you and may have a newer more accessible version available.
>
> Something else you might also check into is whether or not those PDFs are still needed. Unfortunately, people have a tendency to publish things to the web and then forget they are there. The information might no longer be accurate or useful and if they are willing to take down the PDF, that is one less PDF you need to tackle.
>
> Thanks,
> Tim
>
>