I. Fair
Use for Teaching and Research The "fair use" doctrine
allows limited reproduction of copyrighted works for educational
and research purposes. The relevant portion of the copyright
statue provides that the "fair use" of a copyrighted work,
including reproduction "for purposes such as criticism,
news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for
classroom use), scholarship, or research" is not an infringement
of copyright. The law lists the following factors as the
ones to be evaluated in determining whether a particular
use of a copyrighted work is a permitted "fair use," rather
than an infringement of the copyright:
• the purpose
and character of the use, including whether such use
is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational
purposes;
• the nature
of the copyrighted work;
• the amount
and substantiality of the portion used in relation to
the copyrighted work as a whole, and
• the effect
of the use upon the potential market for or value of
the copyrighted work.
Although all
of these factors will be considered, the last factor is
the most important in determining whether a particular use
is "fair." Where a work is available for purchase or license
from the copyright owner in the medium or format desired,
copying of all or a significant portion of the work in lieu
of purchasing or licensing a sufficient number of "authorized"
copies would be presumptively unfair. Where only a small
portion of a work is to be copied and the work would not
be used if purchase or licensing of a sufficient number
of authorized copies were required, the intended use is
more likely to be found to be fair.
Basically, here
at Forums for Justice, all Administrators, Moderators and
members are charged with the responsibility for compliance
with the standards of "fair use." This means that we:
- Look
to see that no more of a published source was quoted from
than absolutely necessary to convey an idea or topic for
discussion.
- That
we not allow to stand completely copied articles of any
kind, and
- That
we always (if at all possible) either link back directly
to the source of our quote (if the source is online) or
state the name of the article, and the publisher or periodical
of origin, and attribute the quote by naming the author.
Hopefully,
we not only stay seriously within the shifting boundries
of fair use, but that we also provide a service in raising
lively discussion regarding topics in the news, and perhaps
even give people reason to refer to and/or purchase the
original publication.
Meanwhile, we
are working on a methodology for contacting the originating
publications for waiver of use, and getting
serious about asking for permission.
We should remain
aware of the fact that full copying of articles can cause
loss of revenue to the copyright holder. I'm aware that
in the case of ephemeral publications like hard copy newspapers,
periodicals, and the tabloid press this is a very real concern.
Therefore, what
we now hope to do here at the fourms, is to quote and refer...that
way if the reader wishes the full report, they are refered
to the originating material. That
way those who wish to read the issue under discussion in
full context will have facilitated means by which to acquire
or view the source materials. It is certainly a different
and somewhat damaging thing, however, to quote an article
in its entirity, which may thus negate any necessity to
purchase the originating publication.
The penalties
for copyright infringement are quite harsh: the court can
award up to $100,000 for each separate act of willful infringement.
Please remember
in exercising your rights of "fair use" in quoting from
sources the four guidelines Ms. Rice mentions above; give
credit to the originating publication and author; hyperlink
to the article if it is online, use only what is necessary
to convey the essence of the issue upon which you wish to
make commentary, and that the main rule of thumb to remember
is that usually less is best.
