Kahle v. AshcroftMuslim Civilization in India
originally submitted by Brian London:
The title pretty much sums it up. The work was originally published 1964 and has been out of print for some time. It is regarded as one of the best survey works on the subject.
Stifled uses
Brian London:
While at Columbia University I took a class, "Islam in South Asia," and the professor wanted to use this work as a text book. I was able to track down a used copy that was being sold by a book dealer as part of a collection that was retired from the West Okland Library. However, many other students were not as lucky. The professor wanted to be able to copy and redistribute the book to the class.
She was able to track down the author's heirs through the lucky coincidense that the book was published by Columbia University Press. But a professor at another University might have had a much harder time.
In the end they let the professor scan and put chapters of the book on the Internet, but this meant that the course webpage had to be password protected.
P.S., if the lawyers email me, I'll help you get in contact with the professor.