NIU is facing packet delays and price increases as a result of copyright violation ruling.

The ruling against Kinko’s Graphics Corp. last March for copyright violation created uncertainty about the “fair use” provision which allows teachers to copy limited amounts of books and articles for classroom use without permission under some circumstances.

In the April 2, 1991 edition of The Northern Star, Kinko’s spokesman Adrianna Foss said NIU or other schools on a semester schedule would not be affected by the delays.

But NIU has been affected.

“There’s an immediate loss, but in the long run I don’t think it will be that detrimental,” said Dan Behnke, manager of Kinko’s, 901 E. Lucinda Ave.

“We had about one-third less requests for course packets this semester. Some professors heard about the lawsuit and equated that with Kinko’s not supplying course packets,” he said.

Behnke said Kinko’s still supplies course packets, but the process is longer.

“The review process is a lot more in-depth now and we are making an effort to make the packets look cleaner,” Behnke said.

Because Kinko’s goes through every page to find out who owns the rights to the articles, it now takes longer to get materials through the store, Behnke said.

Behnke said the types of rights granted depend on each publisher. Some may grant unrestricted copying while others may only allow a certain number of copies. When the agreed number of copies are made, permission must be requested again.

When royalty fees are required for duplication, the cost is added to the course packet fee and students ultimately cover the cost.

“The cost is normally under a dollar a packet, but it depends on the publisher,” Behnke said.

“Between 5 and 10 percent of the professors cancelled their requests for materials this semester,” Behnke said.

However, Kinko’s is not facing this problem alone.

Although Copy Service Inc. is primarly an office supply store and not a copy store, the March ruling affects them as well, said Dave Baker, manager of Copy Service Inc., 1005 W. Lincoln Hwy.

“For any packets we might have lost, we picked up some larger packets that were written by teachers here at Northern,” Baker said. “But quite a few professors cancelled their requests because of royalties and because no definite completion date could be given,” Baker said.

Baker said the amount of time to get permission from the publishers is purely guesswork.

“Sometimes we can get them in a few days and there are some we’ve been working on for months,” Baker said. “It depends on the cooperation of the publishers or lack thereof.”

Baker suggests professors bring their materials in two to three months ahead of time to get them completed on time, but is concerned that it still may not be enough time.

“I don’t think the publishers are equipped to handle the amount of requests coming in so it is taking a lot longer to get a response,” Baker said.

Students pay royalty fees, but do not pay for the costs of phone calls, letters and faxes sent to obtain copyright permission, but if some type of legislation is not passed, these costs may be passed on to the students in the future, Baker said.

The ruling also affects many NIU professors.

Connie Fox, assistant professor for the Physical Education Department, had to leave out a lot of articles from her course packet.

“I didn’t want to have students paying for the copyright,” Fox said.

Fox put copies of the required readings in the department libraries so students can read on their own time.

But there are still problems with this method.

“There is no copier in the department library and students can’t take the materials out,” Fox said.

The impact wasn’t as great on Lucinda Alwa, instructor of classics for Foreign Languages and Literatures, but it still presented problems.

“I traced pictures instead of copying them,” Alwa said.