Google's Cache Ruled Fair Use

jbarr writes "An EFF Article states that: 'A district court in Nevada has ruled that the Google Cache is a fair use ... the Google Cache feature does not violate copyright law.' Notable is the basis that 'The Google Cache qualifies for the DMCA's 512(b) caching 'safe harbor' for online service providers.'" From the article: "The district court found that Mr. Field 'attempted to manufacture a claim for copyright infringement against Google in hopes of making money from Google's standard [caching] practice.' Google responded that its Google Cache feature, which allows Google users to link to an archival copy of websites indexed by Google, does not violate copyright law."

Comments

Re:I don't like this ruling.

[mumblestheclown]

Fair Use

The "fair use" of a copyrighted work, including use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. Copyright owners are, by law, deemed to consent to fair use of their works by others. The Copyright Act does not define fair use. Instead, whether a use is fair use is determined by balancing these factors:

• The purpose and character of the use.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
• The effect of the use on the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work.

In short, clearly you don't know what the hell you are talking about. The information put on a website is only "free" in the sense you don't pay money for it. However, when, for example, a company puts up a website, they are not doing so because they have extra money that they feel like giving you. Rather, they do it because you are in effect "paying" them by building their brand reputation, ego, attracting you to their other offerings, and so forth. Economics 101, man.