[Sigia-l] (off topic) book question

[Ziya Oz]

"Terry Brainerd Chadwick" wrote:

> Fair use is a very limited rationale for violating copyright (using
> someone's work without permission).

(Since we're all playing lawyers here) this is a sad reflection of how far
we've deviated from the original purpose of the notion of copyright:
promotion of science and the useful arts. It's offensive to me that fair use
is considered a violation of copyright, under any circumstance. I have
strong notions on this but, alas, this isn't the forum for airing those :-)

I have zero doubt that if Peter's use of websites falls under "criticism,
news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research"  it is not an
infringement of copyright.

The thing he should consider, though, is that if his use would inhibit the
potential market for or value of the copyrighted work, the website. And
that's fair enough.

It'd be a sad day if the proponents of the copyright-over-everything-else
brigade could end up intimidating weak, inept, poor, small, unbearably
conservative or otherwise clueless publishers from considering worthy
manuscripts. This is precisely what fair use is supposed to prevent to begin
with.

Best,

Ziya

P.S. The law : <http://www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/92chap1.html#107>