But a sole focus on profitable undertakings is unlikely to serve well scholarly communities, higher education, or democracy. This is why the concept of fair use is well worth adapting to the new circumstances. The 53 learned societies which belong to the American Council of Learned Societies embrace more than 300,000 scholars, and all of these learned societies publish at least one scholarly journal. We might better be described as schizophrenic in the current tension between the claims of publishers and users regarding fair use in the new electronic environments.
Scholarly societies feel powerfully the needs, claims, and rights of authors and publishers.
And we feel powerfully the needs, claims, and rights of scholars, teachers, and students. The schizophrenia is made even more intense by the understanding that, at different times, these opposed perspectives can be found in the same people and in the same organizations. We believe in the possibility of finding constructive ways to harmonize these perspectives, these needs and claims, in a manner that is reasonably constructive and beneficial for all. The debate over fair use in networked environments is dominated by two large worries, one on the part of librarians and one on the part of publishers. They are never articulated quite this boldly, but they suffuse the conversation, coloring much of what actually is said.