Currently viewing the category: "Fair Use"

Fair Use ferment

On February 2, 2012 By

There is a lot happening in fair use these days, even as we are still waiting for a decision in the Georgia State copyright infringement v. fair use case.

One of the realities of modern political campaigning is that candidates like to use popular music or other material to increase the energy and appeal of [...]

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Tinkering with Article III

On January 11, 2012 By

Article III of the United States Constitution creates the Supreme Court and provides the skeletal framework for the federal courts system, which Congress is invited to flesh out.  Section 1338 of Title 28 of the United States Code establishes that the federal district courts are to have “original jurisdiction” over all civil actions arising [...]

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What fair use is for

On December 20, 2011 By

When I considered the Authors’ Guild lawsuit against the Hathi Trust and some of its partner institutions a couple of months ago, only the complaint had been filed, so it it was natural to focus on the motivation of the plaintiffs.  And those motives are not hard to discern; after tasting the possibility of [...]

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Streaming video case dismissed

On October 4, 2011 By

Yesterday a judge in Los Angeles dismissed the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by AIME, the Association for Information Media and Equipment, against UCLA.  The lawsuit had alleged that UCLA was infringing copyright by ripping DVDs to create a digital stream, which was then made available through a closed course management system to students in [...]

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Is it all about the Orphans?

On September 15, 2011 By

In my post about the Author Guild’s lawsuit against HathiTrust and some of its university partners, I promise to consider further the question of why the complaint was so focused on orphan works.  Why the plaintiffs put so much emphasis there, since presumably they cannot show that they or the members they represent actually hold [...]

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Stop the Internet, we want to get off!

On September 13, 2011 By

It seems I spoke too soon.  Only hours after I posted on this site a comment about why the HathiTrust orphan works project should not be controversial came news that the US Authors Guild, joined by similar associations in two other countries and eight individual authors, has filed suit to enjoin Hathi from proceeding [...]

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Why is adopting orphans controversial?

On September 12, 2011 By

Ever since Duke, along with Cornell, Emory and Johns Hopkins Universities, announced that we would be participants in the Hathi Trust’s Orphan Works project, I have been talking with a number of different reporters, trying to explain what the project is and why we are doing it.  I was rather pleased to see that [...]

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An easy fair use ruling, but with a message

On August 16, 2011 By

The case of Brownmark Films v. Comedy Partners, which was decided last month in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, raises two really interesting issues for this blog.  I plan to address one of them — fair use — now and save the other for a subsequent post.

I do not want to rehearse the [...]

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Licenses, prices, fair use and GSU

On August 3, 2011 By

When the trial of the Georgia State copyright infringement lawsuit closed last month, the Judge asked both sides to file post-trial briefs, outlining their proposals for findings of fact and conclusions of law that they think the court should make.  They are extensive documents, representing the last chance each side has to make its arguments, [...]

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Why Can’t I Digitize My (Institution’s) Library?

On July 27, 2011 By

By David Hansen, J.D., Scholarly Communications Intern

On Tuesday Judge Denny Chin set a deadline of mid-September for Google, the Authors Guild, and the AAP to work out a settlement for Google Books. The lawsuit, filed in 2005, seems to have been going on forever, and I wonder what, in the meantime, libraries can do [...]

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