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Case 12b :

The Copy Bandit

Simon walked by Zhu, who was standing at the copier, and exclaimed,

"Aiyaa! Zhu, that is a big stack of books there! What are you doing?"

Zhu replied forlornly,

"Ah, Simon, I need to make copies of chapters in these books for my supervisor. She has a big class for Common Core and she asked me to copy these pieces of the book and upload them to her course website. She also asked me if I can figure out how to share links to all of these copies via the Facebook and Weibo pages for the course. I do not know how to do all of that! And she wants this done by Friday."

Simon came over to the stack of books—there were maybe 25—and whistled before he said cautiously,

"Zhu, I do not think we can make copies of so many books. And, this one here says "copy all". Did you take the library orientation course when you arrived here? I did and I remember the librarian mentioning something about the copyright ordinance in Hong Kong saying that we cannot distribute copies of copyrighted material that do not fall under "fair use" rules. I am certain that a whole book cannot be distributed under the fair use requirements. Have you checked with the library? Have you checked with your supervisor?"

Zhu looked at Simon crossly,

"Simon, I am not a law breaker. My supervisor gives me tasks. I do them. I do not have time to consult a librarian now. It is Wednesday and I have to copy these by Friday. If you wish to be a friend, please bring me a cup of tea. But, do not accuse me of breaking the law"

Simon replied to Zhu, a little taken aback,

"Zhu, I mean no offense. I do not want you to get into trouble. I will bring you some tea on my way back from the pantry".

Zhu returned to copying the books, but Simon's words rang in his head. 'Am I doing something wrong? There are many books here and she wants 3 full books put onto the web.'

"My supervisor is smart and she would not ask me to do anything illegal", said Zhu as he busily finished his copying job.

• Whose responsibility is it to ensure that copyright of books and articles is protected?
• Is Zhu responsible for this? Is his supervisor? Is the library?
• What is the meaning of "fair use" of copyright material?
• Who is harmed by distribution of copied material?
   

Imagine you are Simon:

• You have seen Zhu copying many books, what should you do?
• What are your responsibilities as a student for ensuring that copyright protections are maintained at HKU?