Concerning Copyrighted Materials Linked On This Site.
This site is an educational and advocacy site. We have followed the norms of scholarship in footnoting our sources. Where we provide links to the original material, we believe such links fall under the "Fair Use" exemption from copyright infringement.
Fair Use Definition
- Fair Use Definition (See discussion in "Deep Linking Section", Electronic Frontier Foundation]
- FAQs re Fair Use
Recent Ruling
"Fair Use" as a defense of illegal file sharing has been roundly and recently rejected in the US courts in the Joel Tenenbaum case.
Our View
Fair Users!
How do you answer these questions: Are you creating something novel or just copying? Are you competing with the source you're copying from? Are you using just the best bits? Are you using most of it? Are your extracts just saving you time, effort or money?
It should be clear that giving WAV files from a CD you bought, to a friend who didn't, deprives the copyright holders and artist of another sale. Passing the same files on, via a torrent link, does the same.
The use of snippets, brief extracts and copied sections of a copyrighted work can be defended by considering the four factors listed in the 1976 law. If none of the four conditions are met, then such “fair” use of a copyrighted work, in criticism and comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. Note that religious use is not included. Photocopies of hymns, carols & motets still ain't cool.
The Four Factors
- I. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes: is your use just to illustrate a point or are you plagiarizing the copyrighted work for your own profit?
- II. The nature of the copyrighted work: does your extraction make the work less unique?
- III. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole: the more you snip & use, the less likely your use is “fair”.
- IV. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work: are you just revealing who shot JR or parts of the whole story?
It appears to us that the purpose of the fair use exception was designed to protect bona fide appearances of brief extracts of one work inside another work from accusations of infringement. And that’s all.
A signals instructor might want to illustrate the opening motif of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony as an easily remembered example of the Morse code letter V; dit.dit.dit-dah. A two-second MP3 of that famous beginning isn’t being used because of Herr Furtwaengler and the Berlin Philharmonic’s fine performance but it probably will pass scrutiny for fair use of a Phono-recording. If the radio school made the same sound snippet their signature tune, to attract students in radio ads, it would be commercial use and permission/payment would be required.
There is a mathematical method being used to bring some certainty when evaluating whether a fair use copying rises to the level of an infringement. If each of the factors is assigned equal importance, then a simple sum less than 50 percent will suffice. However, the four conditions contain variables which then require weightings to ensure a trivial aspect doesn’t tilt the scale. An easily used model exists here which although useful, cannot be dispositive, because of the subjective variables. You still have to think about it, not just assign scores.
