Shelise Rupp

Although Georgia State University has been embroiled in a bitter copyright controversy with academic publishers over its electronic course reserve program for more than a decade now, the case shows no signs of coming to a resolution anytime soon. In October 2018, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its long-awaited decision as the latest development in the ongoing legal saga. The lawsuit has been pending since April 2008, when Cambridge University Press, SAGE Publications, and Oxford University Press sued GSU for copyright infringement. The fight has centered on GSU’s E-Reserve practices, and its alleged failure to pay for the use of many of the publishers’ works. Instead, GSU claimed fair use and refused to adopt the policies that would placate the publishers. The case has since been decided, appealed, remanded, appealed again, and is now once more headed to the district court on remand from the 11th Circuit.

Last year, a coalition of multiple publishers alleged infringement of millions of works by ResearchGate (a popular networking site for academics), with a few of those publishers even going so far as to file a lawsuit against them. This case continues, with a Munich court holding their first hearing just days ago.

Bynum v. Texas A&M Univ. Athletic Dept., 17-cv-00181 (S.D. Tex.)