In the university setting, I can tell you that just this week I've been trying to negotiate a deal that involves UCLA and the Royal Court of Thailand concerning what existed originally on paper in microfilm. Short of my going at my own expense or maybe SSHRC's expense over to Thailand to talk to those people personally, it would be really valuable, and in fact that's what UCLA suggested. We're busy making digital copies of archival materials of that sort for people like you who are doing that kind of research. We just haven't managed to arrange an agreement with Thailand on that.
I can tell you that just last week I looked up a master's thesis on Thai music and a dissertation from the University of York--not York University--in the U.K. At first I couldn't find it anywhere. My interlibrary loan librarian at York said “We found the website where you can get it. Take a look.” I downloaded it entirely for free. I identified myself as a university researcher. It was accessible in a digital copy. There was no notice that I had to destroy it or any copies of it within five days.
Even with regard to using the old print technology and making only a single copy, I can tell you that if you do editorial work or you work with databases or concordances--and we mentioned that in our written brief--you never make a single copy. That first copy is so marked up, you're making 10 or 20 copies and putting them all together. They're paper copies, mind you. And you're not doing them all in manuscript, because that would be very inefficient.