>Fair use allows for snippets of the material to be used for the purpose
>of discussion. It doesn't allow wholesale reproduction. How big a
>snippet is is up for grabs, but I do not believe that fair use includes
>the reproduction of an entire email, which was the original question.
Actually, it could. The amount reproduced is only one of the four
criteria used to judge whether a document falls within fair use
guidelines, and it's not the one given greatest priority (market
impact). There are instances in which quoting an entire document would
be perfectly legitimate for scholarly purposes - the one that comes
immediately to mind is the first telegraph message (though that's public
domain, of course). On the other hand, quoting even a small segment of
a work could be infringement if that segment vitiates the market value
of the work, for instance.
Educational use does justify a great deal, and if the instructor
documents the reasons for their fair use determination, it can mean that
no damages can be collected. Still, there have been cases in which the
courts have agreed that course packs have affected the market value of
the original works and thus were not protected, so paying attention to
the law is still a good idea.
Also, broadcasting that compilation video over an electronic network is
one area in which you should really get a legal opinion beforehand.
More here:
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
Thanks,
Dan Harms
Coordinator of Instruction Librarian
SUNY Cortland Memorial Library
P. O. Box 2000
Cortland, NY 13045
(607) 753-4042
-----Original Message-----
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Harry Roth
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 9:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] copyright
James John Bell wrote:
>I'm fairly certain that at least in the United States that "fair use"
laws
>allow for the use of ANY copyrighted material for educational uses,
like say
>MTV music videos and television commercials incorporated into your
>educational video that you produce.
>
Fair use allows for snippets of the material to be used for the purpose
of discussion. It doesn't allow wholesale reproduction. How big a
snippet is is up for grabs, but I do not believe that fair use includes
the reproduction of an entire email, which was the original question.
I have tried to educate myself about this issue thoroughly, because what
I write for the web is a big part of how I make my living. I regularly
come across people who have downloaded huge slabs or even the entirety
of my 500-page site and who are distributing it to their "classes" using
the excuse of fair use, or who have "published" it as a "book" they are
selling on ebay, or who believe that since they are not charging
anything for it, it's okay to put their name on it and throw it up on a
site. This is even though I have prominently displayed that any
reproduction requires my permission on every single page of my site. So
I have a real different take on the whole fair use/electronic freedom
thing. I don't go slamming DMCAs up against anyone, but I am very
insistent that the material that I create belongs to me.
Harry Roth
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