Fair Use

On a splendid sunny spring day, Chicago-area filmmakers got together at Columbia College and resolutely faced away from the art college’s magnificent eighth-floor view of the lake. They were too busy learning about changing business models, how to use social networking to promote their work, and about fair use. Read more...

How dangerous is piracy in intellectual property? Despite everything that the MPAA and RIAA say, and the dire suggestions that downloaders will wreck the economy, the real answer is: we have no idea. The General Accounting Office reviewed the existing estimates, typically grounded in reports by large copyright holders and their associations. Read more...

On April 15th, educators and media makers had more interesting things to contemplate than their taxes at the Broadcast Education Association's annual convention in Las Vegas, because they were talking about fair use! Read more...

When I spoke on “Beyond the Copyright Wars” on April 21 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, it was gratifying to dialog with several librarians at the university. They are frustrated by challenges in interpreting fair use, and volunteered to share information as we research the problems of librarians (enabled by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant.) Thanks to Prof. Lew Friedland, who asked me to speak!Read more...

The Hitler brouhaha on YouTube shows the importance of understanding your fair use rights.

It started with Downfall, a German film about Hitler’s last days in power, which has generated an elaborate meme in the online video community. Remixers took a scene that features Hitler having a meltdown with his key staff, and have re-subtitled the scene. One features Hitler screaming about how he has been banned from X-Box Live; another has him upset that his friends won’t join him at Burning Man, and a host of them deal with politics (peaking during the 2008 elections).Read more...