Due to receiving some email asking me to post what I have about the 1998 copyright law and FAIR USE, here is what I found. I do realize that there are many people on this list that have much more experience than I do on this subject and also hope that I am not repeating information to the point of being a bore. I do suggest that someone who is really interested with this search our archives. Am I right in thinking that we can do this? I have gleaned the following information from the INTRODUCTION TO COPYRIGHT LAW class on www.vu.org and this class is being offered again, if anyone is interested. It was wonderful! ~JoanB ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` The doctrine of FAIR USE permits brief excerpts to be quoted from copyrighted material for limited purposes of review or citation of facts, provided the excerpts are properly attributed and the amount of material used is REASONABLE. But there is no absolute definition of FAIR USE. While one Judge may find a particular use to be reasonable, another Judge would rule that the exact same use unreasonable and assess damages against you for copyright infringement. Generally speaking, quoting one or two paragraphs from a full length book would usually be considered as FAIR USE, but on the other hand quoting just a line or two from a song or poem may be constructed as unreasonable use. The DMCA, which stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act, was passed in 1998 and the new law heavily favors copyright holders' rights and does not mention FAIR USE at all. Some experts do believe that this has essentially voided the doctrine of Fair Use, and this principle should not be relied on as a truly viable defense to copyright liability in future court cases. But some critics of the DMCA including Peter Jaszi, a law professor at American University claims that DMCA is unconstitutional because of the failure to make any provision for Fair Use violates the First Amendment protection of free speech.

Hi all Recently there has been a discussion on this list on "fair use" and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The question was whether or not the act recognizes "fair use." Whenever I have a question that I am not certain about on copyright, I go to the source, which to me is usually either the copyright code or judicial rulings on copyright. After studying the code AND the act, I found the following: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was H.R. 2281 and it's purpose was "To amend title 17, United States Code, to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty and Performances and Phonograms Treaty, and for other purposes." To me the key words were "to amend title 17." Title 17 of the US Code is the copyright code. If DMCA was going to override fair use, then the fair use section of the code would have been amended if fair use was going to be impacted. It was not amended. Further, Chapter 12 of the copyright code, Copyright Protection and Management Systems, under section 1201, circumvention of copyright protection systems, says verbatim: (c) Other Rights, Etc., Not Affected. - (1) Nothing in this section shall affect rights, remedies, limitations, or defenses to copyright infringement, including FAIR USE, under this title. This same phrase is found in the H.R. 2281, which is the DMCA., on page 6. I have added a new page at http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikegoad/html/copyright14.htm that discusses this and have added new links on my site for chapter 12 of the copyright code. The new links may be found at my "linked index to the US copyright code" at http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikegoad/html/code.htm . Mike