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[OM] Fair Use doctrine and copyright

Subject: [OM] Fair Use doctrine and copyright
From: Garth Wood <garth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 09:13:45 -0700
Hi, folks.

I'm providing a URL to an Andover News story about a prima facie copyright 
violation of a photographer's images which was ultimately found to be a 
non-violation under the doctrine of 'fair use.'  This may be of interest to any 
one of us who post our images on the Web, although you should read the *entire* 
story for context.

It can be found at:


      http://www.andovernews.com/cgi-bin/news_story.pl?101675/topstories


It gives me pause, but not a lot.  My legal training (such as it is) has always 
told me that these cases are highly dependent on the facts, and there are very 
few concrete guiding principles around when a copyright is violated or when 
'fair use' can negate such a violation.

The long and the short of it is, if your images are posted on the Web, somebody 
sooner or later may try to use them without compensating you in any way, 
regardless of how many copyright notices you splash all over them.  C'est la 
vie.

Garth


  
"A bad day doing photography is better
  than a good day doing just about 
  anything else."
  
The Unofficial Olympus Web Photo Gallery at:

    http://www.taiga.ca/~gallery/
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