Much photocopying from journals and other works is outside the exemption provisions of the Copyright Law of 1976 and cannot legally be undertaken without payment to the copyright holder. Among proposed mechanisms for the determination or transfer of copy fees are subscription surcharges, establishment of statistical copying norms, licensing by publishers, and a transfer of payments centre. This latter approach is recommended by the Association of American Publishers which has developed a program for the establishment of a not-for-profit organization through which users, including libraries and information services, may pay centrally for their journal-article copying.

Private industry scientists and engineers frequently require documents for contextual screening or direct use. Their information centers have long attempted to have most of the appropriate documents at hand, but the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research and engineering has combined with soaring document costs to indicate clearly that this local goal will be decreasingly attainable. More photocopies, electronic copies, and translations (including those of copyrighted works) will therefore be required. Such ready document access is also vital to national goals because over 50 percent of even government-funded research and development is performed by private industry, Private industry information centers thus feel strongly that their users' needs must be included in any solutions to the "copyright problems." What they are after, however, is a "fair access" that will still adequately fund vital publishers and information services through some mutually suitable payment system that are proportional to use.