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Judge May Take "Fair Use" Away From Jury
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In what I can only describe as a shocker, the Judge in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum has, on her own, issued an order questioning whether the jury will be allowed to decide the 'fair use' issue at all, or whether the Judge herself should decide it. Judge Nancy Gertner's decision (PDF) notes that the courts have traditionally submitted the fair use defense to the jury, but questions whether that was appropriate, since the courts have referred to it as an 'equitable' — as opposed to a 'legal' — defense. This decision came from out of the blue, as neither party had raised this issue. IMHO the Judge is barking up the wrong tree. For one, all across the legal spectrum in the US, 'equitable' defenses to 'legal' claims are triable to a jury. Secondly, as the Judge herself notes, the courts have traditionally submitted the issue to the jury. It also seems a bit unfair to bring up a totally new issue like that and give the parties only 6 days to do their research and writing on the subject, at a time when they are feverishly preparing for a July 27th trial."
...because that's the only female US Judge I'm familiar with. (Well her at that copy cat from "People's court", but I can never remember her name). If that's representative then your judges are opinionated, pre-judge everything, apply the law in a slipshod way based on wether or not she likes you and wether or not you show her respect. The number of times I've seen her behave in a way that I considered irrational and inequitable is amazing. So this would fit right in!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Hey, if you're the mod police,does that mean that you're part of the MOD SQUAD?
Disagreeing is not trolling.
Let the author rebut my arguement, but don't mod me down because you disagree with my point of view. Hell, reply yourself if you have an opinion.
That's how ideas are shared.
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