Fair Use

A seven-year-old court case brought by an angry mom may make overzealous copyright holders think twice about Internet takedowns.

In denying requests for a summary judgment and allowing the case to proceed, an appeals court clearly asserted that “copyright holders cannot shirk their duty to consider—in good faith and prior to sending a takedown notification—whether allegedly infringing material constitutes fair use.” If they don’t consider fair use, and not just by paying “lip service” to it, they can be sued.Read more...

Another major organization has endorsed the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts: The Visual Resources Association (VRA), whose members manage image collections in higher education, museums and archives. 

The prestigious professional association was an early supporter of fair use in the visual arts, with guidelines on using images in teaching and research. Now, it will collaborate with the College Art Association to promote the Code, which CMSI helped to create. Read more...

The visual arts community is already putting the Code of Best Practices in the Visual Arts to work in Detroit. At a late-April meeting at the Cranbrook Art Museum, speakers showed fair use can enable work in five areas.

After a presentation on the Code by Janet Landay of the College Art Association and Patricia Aufderheide, a panel of experts explained why fair use matters to them: Read more...

Since the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts launched in February, it has begun conversations in libraries, archives, editorial offices, and classrooms. (Need a refresher on that code? Check out this video!) Now, it's picking up fans.

The Society of Architectural Historians has just endorsed the Code and other organizations have also expressed their enthusiasm. Read more...

The judge’s decision in the “Three’s Company” fair use case makes inspirational reading. For copyright geeks, it’s practically poetry. And for anyone else, it’s good news that the judge so eloquently defends the right to reuse copyrighted material when creating new culture. That’s a defense against the self-censorship that happens when speech is chilled for fear of copyright infringement. Read more...