It would eliminate a major form of communication between our students and faculty that helps to create a sense of community. We could not envision taking such a drastic step without first invoking careful internal processes of review. Whether any given claim of infringement would eventually be upheld by a court of law is much more uncertain in the world of higher education than in the commercial sector by virtue of the widespread and exceedingly important application of fair use. As indicated earlier, much of what we do in universities and colleges in teaching and research relies on our ability to access copyrighted material under fair use provisions. Fair use, as defined by legislation and case law, draws no bright line between acceptable use and unacceptable copyright violation.
Reasonable people can differ in their views of what constitutes fair use.
In light of these concerns, we seek a recognition by those crafting the legislation that the notice and takedown process is more disruptive to the world of higher education than it is to the world of commercial online service providers. And we seek an understanding that any steps we take to either take down material or remove someone's connection to the Web through our networks must inevitably involve due process procedures within our institutions that have no counterpart in the world of commercial service providers. We take very seriously the legal protection of intellectual property, and indeed, universities and colleges and our faculty and staff benefit enormously from that system of protections. At the same time, our ability to teach and carry out research relies importantly on the access to information that the fair use provisions of copyright law create, and we urgently wish to maintain those rights in the world of digital information. Thank you for this opportunity to present our views.