RE: Fair use/fair dealing - a fantasy?: qusetion

["John Cox" <John.E.Cox@btinternet.com>]

Probably not.  Fair Use, that meets the four tests defined in US 
copyright legislation is probably a more generous defense to a 
claim of breach of copyright that the defense of Fair Dealing 
under UK law.  US law, in other words, provides a more generous 
scheme of use not requiring the copyright holder's consent than 
many other jurisdictions.  So don't get your hopes up if the 
author agreement is specified to be subject to a jurisdiction 
other than that of a US state.

Moreover, the fact that an author agreement with a publisher that 
is subject to a non-US jurisdiction - say that of the UK - does 
not deny the US user Fair Use "rights" in the USA.  Similarly, a 
work published by a US publisher, with copyright transferred to 
it by the author subject to US/US state law, does not grant a 
reader in the UK anything other than the Fair Dealing "rights" 
under UK law, which a more restrictive.  That is because Fair Use 
(and Fair Dealing) are exceptions to the right of ownership and 
control that belong to the copyright holder.

So don't get your hopes up!

John Cox

Managing Director
John Cox Associates Ltd
United Kingdom
E-mail: John.E.Cox@btinternet.com
Web: www.johncoxassociates.com

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of ml1047@columbia.edu
Sent: 13 June 2007 20:55
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Fair use/fair dealing - a fantasy?: qusetion

Quoting "Copycense (K. Matthew Dames)" <copycense@gmail.com>:

>Therefore, my understanding of the issue echoes that made by a 
>prior contributor to this thread: the general rule is that once 
>a contract is in place, the terms and conditions of the contract 
>prevail over federal copyright law because a contract is 
>considered to be a private bargain between private actors (whom 
>are presumed to have equal bargaining power to negotiate the 
>terms and conditions of the contract). I am assuming, of course, 
>that the contract is valid under applicable state law.

In relation to the intersection of state/federal law presented 
here, would authors/users in US enjoy greater flexibility with 
respect to practices described in these threads as "fair use" 
when the journals's transfer agreement falls under the 
jurisdiction of another country?

Michael Luby