Texaco Offers to Settle Copyright Case

摘要

A decade-long legal battle over what con-stitutes fair use of copyrighted materials by industry scientists may be drawing to a close. Last week Texaco Corp., which had lost two rounds in court to a coalition of scientific publishers that had accused its researchers of unfairly photocopying journal articles, proposed an out-of-court settlement. Texaco agreed to pay more than $ 1 million to the 83 plaintiffs and to purchase licenses covering photocopying by its researchers. The case has evoked fears among researchers that the courts might stanch the free flow of information, while publishers were keen to ensure that corporations reimburse them for the use of copyrighted material (Science, 25 November 1994, p. 1315).