The problem with copyright: fair use

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LEGAL BRIEF By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq. All might be fair in love and war, but not in copyright If you think about copyrights for a moment, it might
[See the full post at: The problem with copyright: fair use]

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DLivesInTexas, AmbularD, abbodi86

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[BATcher]

Yet another “US-only but unacknowledged as such” newsletter article!

Brian Livingstone’s “The best laptop docking stations and hubs for 2021” has the same problem when suggesting laptop docks.

PLEASE could contributors bear in mind that there are English-speaking countries in the world other than the United States, which have different legislation, broadband provisioning and hardware availability (to name just a few differences).  Only about 4.3% of the world’s population lives in the USA…

Might I suggest that considering this matter each time, where relevant, could be another AskWoody Newsletter Improvement?  Thanks!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by BATcher.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Tom, RockE

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USA may be only 4% of the population, but they are still a majority of the readership of the newsletter. Also and often unfortunately, they often set precedent for handling in other countries in tech law.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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[BATcher]

BATcher wrote:

Yet another “US-only but unacknowledged as such” newsletter article!

Brian Livingstone’s “The best laptop docking stations and hubs for 2021” has the same problem when suggesting laptop docks.

PLEASE could contributors bear in mind that there are English-speaking countries in the world other than the United States, which have different legislation, broadband provisioning and hardware availability (to name just a few differences).  Only about 4.3% of the world’s population lives in the USA…

Might I suggest that considering this matter each time, where relevant, could be another AskWoody Newsletter Improvement?  Thanks!

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by BATcher.

I disagree 1000% with your position!

AskWoddy can’t possibly cover every country where there are english speakers, and where there are unique country-region specific laws, rules, codes, or power sources, not to mention import-export restrictions that may or may not limit access to said technology discussed in an article.  That is absolutely impossible…

To those of us who have been reading their various publications for a couple of generations now, literally, we’ve always understood that this is primarily a U.S. publication that just happens to have some far and wide subscribers.  Since these publications use a donation only subscription model, there is no way they can afford to cover everything some reader, somewhere, might find interesting, or cover said laws or legal codes accordingly.  That is just so unreasonable…

But as a simple suggestion, why not ask the editors how much it would cost to produce such a piece of work for your country’s english speakers, then donate that amount to AskWoody so they can produce your desired, country flavored publication?  It’s a fair proposal…

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jayinalaska

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LEGAL BRIEF By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.
Nice article, but in my humble opinion you left out the simplest and most obvious tactic before making use of copywritten material: “Ask the author for permission“.

And you may quote me on that!
Cheers
Chris

Unless you're in a hurry, just wait.

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LEGAL BRIEF By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

Thanks for the brief.  I believe that copyright term is the real problem, not how to gain permission or create citations. A patent has a fixed expiration, while a copyright does not. What is the logic that an inventor’s creation has less intrinsic value than a mere composition? It is more than a little ironic that Disney can copyright their production of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales. My viewpoint is that copyright and patent should both have a 25-year term and then expire.

Regards,

Rick

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NaNoNyMouse

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Artworks and literature have a fixed expiration. Unless it’s regularly renewed, copyright expires on artwork and books (and comic books). That’s why I can sell enhanced digital images of Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night printed on canvas without infringing anyone’s copyright. Or publish an early digitized Captain America comic book online without fear of litigation. Copyright has expired and was never renewed.

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Regarding copyrights and fair use : Supreme Court rules in Google’s favor in copyright dispute with Oracle over Android software

The Supreme Court on Monday sided with Google against Oracle in a long-running copyright dispute over the software used in Android.
Oracle had claimed at points to be owed as much as $9 billion, while Google claimed that its use of the code was covered under the doctrine of fair use.
The court sided 6-2 in Google’s favor. Justice Stephen Breyer authored the majority opinion.

The case concerned about 12,000 lines of code that Google used to build Android that were copied from the Java application programming interface developed by Sun Microsystems, which Oracle acquired in 2010. It was seen as a landmark dispute over what types of computer code are protected under American copyright law….

Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote the majority opinion in the case, agreed that Google’s use of the code was protected under fair use, noting that Google took “only what was needed to allow users to put their accrued talents to work in a new and transformative program.”

“To the extent that Google used parts of the Sun Java API to create a new platform that could be readily used by programmers, its use was consistent with that creative ‘progress’ that is the basic constitutional objective of copyright itself,”..

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BATcher wrote:

Yet another “US-only but unacknowledged as such” newsletter article!

Brian Livingstone’s “The best laptop docking stations and hubs for 2021” has the same problem when suggesting laptop docks.

What has it to do with US only. Many Hubs work everywhere with proper AC power plug / adapter.
Example : the $25 Vava’s 7-in-1 USB-C Hub is sold in UK, EU..
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A16DhPWC9NL.pdf

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In response to your article about copyright: https://public.resource.org is not defunct, merely not located at the “publicresource.org” URL.

Your article is correct that a lower court had ruled against Public Resource’s publication of the annotated Georgia State code, however the Supreme Court overturned that ruling and holds that State Codes, including state-generated annotations may not be copyrighted. See https://epic.org/amicus/public-access/publicresourceorg/GA-v-PRO-SCOTUS-Opinion.pdf

Your point that even “non-commercial” copying can infringe on a copyright remains valid.

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b

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Unless I’ve mis-read the Supreme Court record which is linked in your article, the Roberts court voted 5-4 in favor of the respondent. Thomas said the majority didn’t understand the word “author”
and the other three we concerned with protecting the writers of the annotations. You seem to say the the State of Georgia won. ???

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