American Chemical Society, Elsevier Science USA and Wiley Publications, Inc. File Copyright Infringement Suit against Greg Wilson Kessler.

Business Editors

DANVERS, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 2002

Copyright Clearance Center Coordinates Claims

Against Sacramento Document Delivery Service;

Case is Part of a Growing Campaign to Enforce Rights

Three major publishers of scientific, technical and medical materials today announced that they have filed suit against Greg Wilson Kessler, the principal of a document delivery service in Sacramento, California, that operates under the name Greg Kessler. The suit charges Kessler with extensive unauthorized reproduction of material from the publishers' books and journals for resale to his customers, and unauthorized delivery of those reproductions by e-mail in Portable Document Format (PDF). The publishers are the American Chemical Society (a non-profit scholarly organization), Elsevier Science (USA) (also known as Harcourt, Inc.), and Wiley Publications, a division of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

"When a document delivery service engages in wholesale reproduction of rightsholders' materials and delivers them electronically for its own profit, without clearing rights as so many other document deliverers properly do, that constitutes serious and damaging copyright infringement. It severely harms both the creators and the publishers of those materials," said Mark Seeley, vice president and general counsel of Elsevier Science. "Kessler's operation is small compared to some, but not too small to do harm."

The matter is being coordinated by Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), the largest licenser of text reproduction rights in the world and a licensing agent for all three publishers. CCC and its participating rightsholders provide licenses and permissions to many document delivery services and other users of copyrighted materials. In exchange, copyright royalties are collected and then distributed to the appropriate copyright holders.

"We process hundreds of thousands of requests each year from document delivery services for the right to reproduce copyrighted works, and a large portion of those requests can be copyright-cleared in a matter of seconds," said Frederic Haber, general counsel of CCC. "Rightsholders who seek to make the permissions process for document deliverers as convenient as possible use CCC to license the transactions, and all three of these publishers do so."

Previously, Elsevier and Wiley had filed suit against Greg Kessler's former employer, Kessler-Hancock Information Services, Inc., for copyright infringement; infringement for which, it turned out, Greg Kessler had been substantially responsible. That case has settled and, according to Mr. Haber of CCC, Kessler-Hancock Information Services, Inc. is "now routinely and in good faith clearing permissions." The three publishers in the present case have just settled out of court with a document delivery company that had engaged in PDF delivery. Also, in combination with The MIT Press, Elsevier and Wiley have recently sued Custom Copies, Inc., a copy shop in Florida, for large-scale infringement in the "coursepack" business.

Roy Kaufman, associate general counsel, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., stated that more enforcement efforts are "in the pipeline." He continued, "We are attempting to show through persistent and well-publicized efforts that we publishers are committed to continuing our ongoing compliance activities and will pursue infringement through court action if necessary." "This complaint defends our copyrights and helps to maintain a level playing field for the many organizations that comply with copyright law."

Robert Bovenschulte, director of American Chemical Society's (ACS) publications division, said, "Respect for copyright is important to progress in the sciences. Members of ACS are both producers and users of copyrighted works and we take protection of those works quite seriously. If publishers are not fairly compensated for reuse of their publications, incentive to produce new works may be stifled, and then, for example, those works are not available as building blocks for the further chemical science breakthroughs for which our members are world-renowned. As a result, we regard as crucial copyright compliance by those who use our works."

About the American Chemical Society

A nonprofit organization with a membership of more than 163,000 chemists and chemical engineers, the American Chemical Society publishes scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences, and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. Its Web site can be accessed at www.chemistry.org.

About Elsevier Science

Harcourt, Inc., doing business as Elsevier Science (USA), is a U.S.-based unit of Elsevier Science (www.elsevier.com), headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company is the world's leading scientific, technical and medical information provider and publishes over 1,400 journals as well as books and secondary databases. It is a member of the Reed Elsevier PLC group (www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider. Reed Elsevier PLC is owned equally by Reed International PLC (NYSE: RUK) and Elsevier NV (NYSE: ENL).

About Wiley

Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (of which plaintiff Wiley Publications, Inc., is an operating unit) provides must-have content and services to customers worldwide. Its core businesses include scientific, technical, and medical journals; encyclopedias, books, and online products and services; professional and consumer books and subscription services; and educational materials for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners. Wiley has publishing, marketing, and distribution centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols JWa and JWb. Wiley's Internet site can be accessed at www.wiley.com.

About CCC

Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. a not-for-profit corporation, is the world's largest licensing agent for text reproduction rights and the provider of many licensing services for reproducing copyrighted materials in print and electronic formats. The company was formed in 1978 to facilitate compliance with U.S. copyright law. CCC currently manages rights relating to over 1.75 million works and represents more than 9,600 publishers and hundreds of thousands of authors and other creators, directly or through their representatives. CCC-licensed customers in the U.S. number over 10,000 corporations and subsidiaries (including most of the Fortune 100 companies), as well as thousands of government agencies, law firms, document suppliers, libraries, academic institutions, copy shops and bookstores. CCC can be found on the World Wide Web at www.copyright.com.