In possibly the first case of its kind--one that could set precedents for academic photocopying across the country--seven publishers sued Gnomon Corporation this week, charging it with extensive violations of copyright law.

The suit against the Cambridge-based photocopying chain, organized by the Association of American Publishers (AAP), asks for the disclosure of Gnomon's records and for an unspecified amount of money as damages. Gnomon officials have refused to comment on the case.

The suit involves a service Gnomon offers called "micropublishing," Henry R. Kaufman, vice president of AAP's General Council, says. Under this service a professor brings in material for Gnomon to copy and collect in an anthology and then sell to the students of his class.

Kaufman said the publishers are aiming the suit at a "profit-making corporation that is profiting from the violation of copyright laws" and not at any specific individuals or professor.

Here at Harvard, Edward T. Wilcox, director of General Education, says his department does a large amount of copying to prepare course materials but that he does not know of any instructor using Gnomon's service.

Wilcox says much of the material copied is either out-of-print or very hard to obtain. Whenever a professor teaching a Gen Ed course compiles an anthology for resale to students, "it always goes out at cost," he adds.

Wilcox says he had interpreted coyright law to allow "fair use" of copyrighted material "if there was no profit involved."

Copyright law defines "fair use" as follows: Photocopying "for the purposes of criticism, comment, newsreporting, teaching (including multiple copying for classroom use, scholarship or research) is not an infringement of copyright law," James A. Sharaf '59, attorney in the General Counsel's Office specializing in copyright law, says.

However, Kaufman says, "The magnitude of copying done by Gnomon would be considered a violation whether they sold the material for profit or not."

Sharaf says in copyright law a violation largely depends on the "purpose and character of use" in copying the material.

The minimum standards of "fair use" are difficult to set, but most professors do not do the same extent of photocopying as Gnomon, Kaufman says.