Fair Use ferment
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...
View ArticleA masterpiece of misdirection
On February 28, the Authors Guild filed a memorandum in support of its “motion for partial judgment on the pleadings” in its lawsuit against the Hathi Trust and five of its partner libraries, asking...
View ArticleKeeping it simple, or how to solve the Berne problem, part 2
My first post about the Berkeley orphan works conference focused on what we had done to create the massive orphan works problem we now face, and what mistakes we should avoid in the future as we try to...
View ArticleA safe harbor, not an anchor
Whenever Jonathan Band writes a “Friend of the Court” brief on behalf of the Library Copyright Alliance, it is sure to be worth careful reading. One not only learns a lot about the particular case...
View ArticleThe GSU decision — not an easy road for anyone
Overall there is good news for libraries in the decision issued late yesterday in the Georgia State University e-reserves copyright case. Most of the extreme positions advocated by the plaintiff...
View ArticleMore on GSU and the publisher response
Now that I am back from vacation and have read the GSU ruling and some of the commentary more thoroughly, I wanted to add a few additional comments. In many cases these may be repetitive of things...
View ArticlePublishers file response to GSU ruling
Yesterday the three plaintiff publishers in the copyright infringement case against Georgia State filed their proposed injunction, as the Judge required that they do, and a memorandum of law in support...
View ArticleRedefining research
The last month has seen extraordinary changes in the copyright law of Canada, including two Supreme Court decisions that I wish we could import south of the border to the U.S. At the end of June a...
View ArticleThe prevailing party
Since the ruling in the Georgia State case in May that decided, at the trial court level, the substantive issues of the claimed copyright infringement, I have been telling people to wait for a while...
View ArticleA not-very-appealing appeal
To the surprise of no one, I think, the plaintiff publishers in the Georgia State litigation filed a notice of appeal on Monday. There has already been considerable coverage of this decision, in, for...
View ArticleQuestions about the AAP Google settlement
There have been quite a few stories about the news that Google has settled with the Association of American Publishers in its long-running lawsuit alleging copyright infringement in the Google Books...
View ArticleA big win for fair use and libraries
What a stretch of four months it has been! First, in July, we had the ruling in the Georgia State lawsuit affirming that most of the excerpts for teaching that were challenged as copyright infringement...
View ArticleComing clean on technological neutrality
It is not a case that draws much attention from higher education circles, but the case of WNET et al. v Aereo has drawn an amicus brief that should worry anyone who is interested in how copyright law...
View ArticleAnother fair use victory for libraries
We knew some time ago that the second complaint filed in the copyright infringement case brought against UCLA by the the trade association AIME over streamed digital video had been dismissed. But last...
View ArticleLaw and politics in the GSU case
Last week we saw the first real flurry of activity reported in the publisher appeal of the Georgia State University fair use victory. The news items and filings call our attention to both the legal...
View ArticleThe view from the other side of the revolving door
PREFACE — On Friday morning I wrote two blog posts. One, about whether libraries should stop buying materials from the publishers that are suing Georgia State, I posted right away. The other, about...
View ArticleGSU and Sony
Another day, another silly brief filed in support of the plaintiff publishers in the Georgia State copyright infringement appeal. This one comes from the American Association of University Presses...
View ArticleFair use for appropriation art
A new ruling came out last week in one of the most interesting cases involving appropriation art, the ongoing dispute between photographer Patrick Cariou and appropriation artist Richard Prince. I...
View ArticleFinding out who your friends are
The period for filing amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs in the appellate phase of the Georgia State University copyright and fair use case has closed, so it is a good time to take stock of...
View ArticleTime for breakfast at the 11th Circuit
In Alice in Wonderland, the White Queen chides Alice about her professed inability to believe unbelievable things, suggesting that it is just a matter of practice. Because of her own discipline in...
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