Jim Smith, proprietor of Michigan Document Service, said that new copyright laws brought about the end for his establishment. Throughout its many years, the company did everything in its power to maneuver around copyright laws that drove coursepack prices higher for students. In 1992, the American Association of Publishers, a group of more than 250 publishing companies, successfully sued Smith for noncompliance with national copyright laws. Although Smith managed to have the verdict overturned on appeal, the association pursued and received a reversal of that decision. The legal ordeal ended with the U.S. Supreme Court's denial of Smith's final appeal last spring.
To comply with the law, MDS began requiring students to push buttons on copiers themselves to make coursepacks. While this saved students a good deal of money, it produced severe inconveniences and long lines. Some students simply chose to ignore the ordeal and not purchase their coursepacks. Staying open became financially impossible for Smith.
The expensive fees that publishing companies can set on materials students need for their coursework greatly harm the goals of higher education. University students must pay a great sum of money for tuition, textbooks, room and board alone; coursepacks that can cost upwards of $60 only aggravate an already-difficult financial situation for students. Ideally, publishing companies would recognize that students need much more affordable excerpts from certain texts; but profit-driven publishers are unlikely to let this happen.
The way to get around expensive licensing fees is to print them for a nonprofit, academic purpose. Because coursepack stores are for-profit businesses, the materials they reprint are subject to royalty fees. The student-run, nonprofit coursepack store that the Michigan Student Assembly trumpeted last year could ease this burden for students by offering relief from the exorbitant fees. But as of yet, the founding of such an outlet has stalled.
Understandably, the creation of such a service must struggle against the conventional way of doing things. MSA's first task is to earn the faculty's confidence in their proposed store, showing that they can accommodate professors' needs. While this certainly will take time, every delay simply hurts MSA's constituents.
Besides supporting the student-run coursepack store, the faculty can help students in another way. If possible, faculty members should shun those publishers charging exorbitant fees for small additions to coursepacks. If the faculty were to stand up for their students and not use works published by over-charging companies, the publishers would soon feel compelled to reduce their fees.
The loss of Michigan Document Service is a painful blow to University students, but the integrity they demonstrated in serving students before publishers is honorable and should be appreciated. MSA, the group that is supposed to stand for students' interests, must now follow through on its proclamations and establish its store. Such an accomplishment would greatly help students and serve as a shining emblem of the MSA's effectiveness.