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Arguing the Case for Fair-Use by Example?

Posted by Cliff on from the argument-by-absurdity dept.

bobej1977 asks: "Happened to be perusing my local newspaper website and came across a link to one of those corny news websites, a la Dave Barry. Included were a couple of funny Fair-Use related stories. This got me thinking about how it's often easier to explain the idea of fair-use in terms of the absurdities that occur when people stop using their common sense. Anybody else have any interesting links/stories?" Read on for examples of what bobej means. bobej1977's article examples:
"In December, Australia's TV Channel 7 reported that many schools across the country, at the behest of the Australasian Performing Rights Association, were discouraging parents from making keepsake movies of their kids' appearances in Christmas musicals, because recording the holiday songs might violate copyright law. [Seven Network Ltd. (Australia), 12-22-03]"
and
"In February 2004, according to a New York Times report, cuts from 'White Album' by the band Sonic Youth were being listed for downloading on Apple's iTunes online store, and included was 'Silence,' a 63-second cut consisting of no sound at all, for which fans were nonetheless expected to pay the regular iTunes price of 99 cents. (In a subsequent clarification, a Sonic Youth spokesman said 'Silence' would only be sold to purchasers who bought all of the album's cuts.) [New York Times, 2-9-04, 2-16-04]"
Are these decent examples of the absurd, that make a fair to strong case for fair-use? What examples might you have?

6 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Here's one from a few year ago. by MarkusQ · · Score: 4, Informative

    So, you like to sing at camp?

    -- MarkusQ

    1. Re:Here's one from a few year ago. by Brandybuck · · Score: 2, Informative

      Favorite quote: 'Ascap, which is based in New York, defends the royalties. "Songwriters are small-business people who write songs to make a living," Mr. Lo Frumento says. "The royalties allow them to send their kids to Girl Scout camp, too." '

      --
      Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
  2. Illegal Art by jeffy124 · · Score: 4, Informative

    there's an art show out there called "Illegal Art" that's chock full of art works that "test the limits" so-to-speak. An example would be that drawing of various Disney characters in curious positions. The html file of DeCSS source code laid out like the DVD logo is also part of the tour. I dont have time to dig it up now, but they have a website and there are occasional news articles in local papers when the show tours that locality.

    --
    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
  3. Phththpht by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    Is it irony if in commenting on fair use you grotesquely butcher a famous quotation? I dunno.

    The CORRECT quote is from Justice Potter Stewart (Supreme Court, Jacobellis v. Ohio):

    It is possible to read the Court's opinion in Roth v. United States and Alberts v. California, 354 U.S. 476, in a variety of ways. In saying this, I imply no criticism of the Court, which in those cases was faced with the task of trying to define what may be indefinable. I have reached the conclusion, which I think is confirmed at least by negative implication in the Court's decisions since Roth and Alberts, that under the First and Fourteenth Amendments criminal laws in this area are constitutionally limited to hard-core pornography. I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.
  4. Re:Happy Birthday by brigc · · Score: 4, Informative


    I think it's pathetic that a melody written in 1893 is still covered by copyright... barring additional changes in law, the song's now protected at least 2030!


    The actual details behind Happy Birthday are kind of interesting... a good synopsis is available from the reference librarian's best friend, Snopes.

    ...brig

    --
    -- When I grow up I'd like to be a systems defenestrator.
  5. Re:Happy Birthday by extra88 · · Score: 4, Informative

    If your kid has a birthday party and you hire a clown to come in and he sings Happy Birthday, the law was broken.

    It's not illegal to sing "Happy Birthday," it's illegal to sing it publicly and not pay the requisite fee to ASCAP or whichever organization handles the collecting of fees and distribution of royalties to composers.