Fair Use and Copyright Week 2

WOW, is all I have to say about fair use and copyright. Pretty much if you didn’t write it, photograph it, draw it, sing it, think it or design it then you better make sure to cite it. However, there is a small and limited window of hope that falls under the Fair Use doctrine of the United States Copyright Act (1976) stating that the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:
1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
If your usage falls within these guidelines you should be safe. Making sure that you cite your work properly is equally important. There are tons of sources that can help to figure out how, what and when to cite sources. My favorite is http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

There have been hundreds of lawsuits that have gone to court over these issues. The one that I found to be pretty interesting was the case against Google Books in 2005. In this case The Authors Guild, Pearson PLC's Penguin unit, McGraw-Hill Cos., John Wiley & Sons Inc. and CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster filed a $125 million lawsuit against Google for the scanning of 12 million books that they claimed infringed on their copyright (Sterling, 2008). On one hand I completely see the reason why they were upset and started the lawsuit but on the other hand I think it was a bit extreme. Many of these publications had been out of the spotlight for years and most people wouldn’t have ever known they existed had Google not allowed searches within these books. It was a catch 22; because of Google the plaintiffs could have gained notoriety by getting their work out in the public eye again but at the same time the users of the search were not obligated to purchase the book or materials (although given the opportunity) thus taking away revenue from the authors. Google ultimately settled the lawsuit and was able to continue scanning books for public searches.

References

Copyright Act of 1976 § 107, 17 U.S.C.

Sterling, G. (2008). Google Settles Book Search Copyright Lawsuit For $125 Million, Paves Way For Novel Services. Retrieved from http://searchengineland.com/google-settles-copyright-litigation-for-125-million-paves-way-for-novel-services-15282