Mathieu Plourde's List: Copyright & Fair Use

"An artist and comedian has been told by the publisher Penguin that her new satirical art book breaches its copyright, and if she continues to sell copies it could use the courts to seize the books and have them pulped.

Miriam Elia, who has her own comedy series, A Series Of Psychotic Episodes, on BBC Radio 4 and has had a number of short segments on Channel 4, had produced a spoof version of the Ladybird books from the 60s. Generations of British children fondly remember these works, which famously portrayed the daily lives of Mummy, Peter and Jane as an introduction to reading and writing for young children."

"The lawsuit said a character in the movie took a line from Faulkner’s book, “Requiem for a Nun.”

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” Faulkner wrote in the book.

In the movie, actor Owen Wilson, says: “The past is not dead. Actually, it’s not even past. You know who said that? Faulkner. And he was right. I met him too. I ran into him at a dinner party.”"

"By “it”, I mean my work, which includes images, visuals, infographics, infoflyers, blog posts, how to guides, text, jpgs, videos, pdfs, etc.  Just because I love my work, spend HOURS writing, designing and creating does not mean I want someone else to take credit for it. Just because I share my work for free online DOES NOT mean that I give away ALL my rights. I have chose a special kind of copyright license to encourage others to (hopefully) learn from my work."

"The estate insisted that Klinger needed to license the whole book, and threatened to stop Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other large companies from selling the book if he didn’t comply. Klinger and his coeditor, Laurie King, previously paid a $5,000 licensing fee to publish A Study in Sherlock, but they decided not to give in this time around.  The Conan Doyle estate is known for aggressively pursuing copyright claims, and most people looking to use the character—including the creators of the TV shows Sherlock and Elementary and the producers of the updated Sherlock Holmes movies—have paid licensing fees.  “Enough is enough,” Klinger told The New York Times in February,” This time it was really too big a threat.”"

we really don’t own our stuff anymore (at least not fully); the manufacturers do. Because modifying modern objects requires access to information: code, service manuals, error codes, and diagnostic tools. Modern cars are part horsepower, part high-powered computer. Microwave ovens are a combination of plastic and microcode. Silicon permeates and powers almost everything we own.

Chief among these principles is that protecting authors is in the public interest. Ensuring that all creators retain the freedom of choice in determining how their creative work is used, disseminated and monetized is vital to protecting freedom of expression. Consent is at the heart of freedom, thus we must judge any proposed update by whether it prioritizes artists’ rights to have meaningful control over their creative work and livelihood.

The rationale for seeking open terms of both access and use is as follows. Free access provides the literature to at least five overlapping audiences: researchers who happen upon open-access research articles while browsing the Web rather than a password-protected database; researchers at institutions that cannot afford the subscription prices for the growing literature; researchers in disciplines other than that of a journal's intended audience, who would not otherwise subscribe; patients, their families, students, and other members of the public with an interest in the information but without the means to subscribe; and researchers' computers running text-mining software to analyze the literature. In addition, granting readers full reuse rights unleashes the full range of human creativity for translating, combining, analyzing, adapting, and preserving the scientific record, whereas traditional copyright arrangements in scientific publishing increasingly inhibit scholarly communication.

"But the U.S. Copyright Law says otherwise, depending on the situation. While it's highly unlikely a teacher would be taken to court for copyright infringement in the case of showing a movie at school, it's still useful to have a working knowledge of the law and how to be good citizens when showing media. "

"From Barbie to cereal to a tattoo, a copyright lawsuit can get contentious; some have even reached the Supreme Court "

"There are five areas of copyright of interest to educators and digital storytelling, and we have a section dedicated to each. They are:

Copyright
Legal Issues
Educational Fair Use
Creative Commons
Multimedia"

"This approach doesn’t entirely invalidate existing computational idea patents, because they would continue to apply to implementations using special-purpose hardware. This is an advantage because it eliminates an argument against the legal validity of the plan. The U.S. passed a law some years ago shielding surgeons from patent lawsuits, so that even if surgical procedures are patented, surgeons are safe. That provides a precedent for this solution."

"This article examines a relatively recent and increasingly problematic trend in fair use jurisprudence: courts’ tendency to decide whether a copyright defendant has made a fair use of the plaintiff’s work based in part on whether the defendant has acted in “bad faith.” Courts use the term “bad faith” to encompass a wide range of conduct weighing against a finding of fair use."

"The technological tools for transforming existing works have not only multiplied and increased in complexity, but they have also been effectively democratized because of their often significantly reduced cost and near-ubiquitous networked availability. Publishers and editors may no longer stand as primary gatekeepers to most creative works; increasingly, works are assessed in the public sphere through online databases like YouTube, and creators are making more works than ever before. Many such works rely heavily on the public domain, fair use, and the rich cultural soil of previous works for their efficacy and quality."

"The doctrine of fair use has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years and has been codified in section 107 of the copyright law."

A Guide to Copyright for UMKC Educators and Students

"The blog about the web video series, "Everything is a Remix""

"In addition to specific exceptions for libraries and educators, academic and research librarians use the important general exemption of fair use to accomplish their mission. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances, especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant."

"CourseHero.com, a Web site that allows students to post exam questions and homework solutions, has raised legal issues for professors and faculty, causing the university's lawyer to take action against the potential misuse of copyrighted intellectual property."