Tag Archives: fair use

McCain in Trouble for Copyright Infringement

Perhaps it was the mention of disputed fair use that caught my attention.
Jackson Browne is not a conservative AND has a history of not allowing his music to be used in ads. Yet, part of “Running on Empty” evidently was matched to video in a McCain presidential ad.
Now, the lawyers are involved. [...]

Quibbling About Copyright and Fair Use Is Off Target

The recent release of a “best practices” guide to copyright and fair use has generated the typical echo effect among educational bloggers. It is pretty obvious from my previous comments that there is something about more and more liberal interpretation of “fair use” that annoys me. The exact source of this annoyance is difficult to [...]

Who Gets to Decide What is Fair?

Recently a group of folks convened in an effort to consider the topic of fair use in education. The group generated a report and some have gone as far as to proclaim “Finally the end to copyright confusion has arrived”. The document generated by this group is available online (Best practices document - pdf) and [...]

When is this legal

I came across a new online resource called SimplyBox. It is another entry within the category of tools that allows a user to collect and organize research resources (e.g., Evernote). I have heard this category described as “clippers”.
I think these are great tools for personal research. What I wonder about is the use of such [...]

Associated Press and “Fair Use”

Saul Hansell in a NY Times article reports that the Associated Press is reacting to what the AP considers excesses quoting by bloggers and is attempting to set guidelines.
The Times article states:
Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to [...]

Who still uses coursepacks?

I read something about a suit brought by publishers against Georgia State a few days ago and did not think much more about it (NY Times). Then Carvin offered a blog post on the same topic.
It seems Georgia State has been providing students digital reproductions of content from several publishers without authorization.
My first reaction was [...]

Would you liberalize fair use if you could?

Ed bloggers (here unnamed) have latched on to a School Library Journal article suggesting educators often unnecessarily limit themselves (and their students) with a conservative interpretation of fair use.
Fear and guilt seemed regularly in the way of innovative teaching and creative expression.
While I am not a lawyer (anyone who comments on copyright says this, so [...]