Re: Fair use

[Linda Hopkins <lin.hopkins@hotmail.com>]

Mr. Thatcher made some good points regarding the possible 
limiting effect of state contract law on the ability to use 
copyrighted material under a "fair use" defense found in the 
federal copyright law.

Another point to be made, however, is that use of "copyrighted" 
articles by instructors under the defense of "fair use" is 
specifically limited by provisions of the U. S. Copyright Act. As 
with any other right, there is no absolute defense allowed by the 
referring to "fair use."  The courts evaluate many factors to 
determine is the use is actually "fair."  I won't go into those 
here as I assume most of the discussion members are aware of 
these.

But, as pointed out in U. S. Copyright Circular 21 
("http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ21.pdf";), "Reproductions of 
Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians", educators are 
limited in how many copies they can make for distribution in a 
classroom of an copyrighted article, how much of the article's 
total content they can copy, how many times the teacher can copy 
copyrighted material within a school year.

Thus, copying and/or displaying a copyrighted article (even if 
authored by self) and then claiming it's for educational purpose 
and, hence, can be unlimitedly used/displayed because the use 
meets a fair use defense is not accepted by the courts if they 
follow the guidelines of the Copyright Office.

Linda Hopkins

Linda K. Hopkins
Attorney at Law, Intelliware Int'l Law Firm
449 South Owasso Boulevard West, Roseville, MN  55113
lin.hopkins@hotmail.com