Patricia Aufderheide's Posts

A September conference at the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University’s Washington College of Law (WCL) featured a look back at the remarkable change over the last decade in fair use practices, as a result of a strategy led by Peter Jaszi, in which the Center has been proud to play a part.   Read more...

An art historian wins a fair use victory, with the help of the College Art Association’s Code of Best Practices in Fair Use and a publisher that appreciates it.Read more...

What is the language of interactive documentary? In an article just published by the Journal of Film and Video , I asked this question of several interactive docs available at MIT’s Open Documentary Lab, by looking at their navigation systems. Read more...

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...

Dear CMSI,

I found an acceptable-quality copy of the public-domain painting I need to illustrate a point in my new book. The same image is available from a museum, but the museum would charge me a permissions fee. Can I just use the copy I found for my book? Read more...