Courts rule in Cambridge Univ. Press v. "GSU"

Last Friday, the judge finally ruled in the case of Cambridge University Press, Sage Publications and Oxford University Press v. several officials at Georgia State University (“GSU”).  The suit was file in April 2008, which demonstrates how slowly a copyright case can move through the court.  Testimony was given last year and it has taken months for the judge to decide on all counts.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education:

A federal judge in Atlanta has handed down a long-awaited ruling in a lawsuit brought by three scholarly publishers against Georgia State University over its use of copyrighted material in electronic reserves. The ruling, delivered on Friday, looks mostly like a victory for the university, finding that only five of 99 alleged copyright infringements did in fact violate the plaintiffs' copyrights.

K. Matthew Dames has provided a summary of the ruling, along with implications and notes that the publishers may file an injunction.  Dames also notes that this ruling demonstrates the importance of academic institutions having copyright policies AND educating their faculty, staff and students about the policy.

I expect more analysis to be written about this case in the coming days and weeks, so if you are an academic librarian, keep your eyes open!