Arguing the Case for Fair-Use by Example? 31
bobej1977 asks: "Happened to be perusing my local newspaper website and came across a link to one of those corny news websites, a la Dave Barry. Included were a couple of funny Fair-Use related stories. This got me thinking about how it's often easier to explain the idea of fair-use in terms of the absurdities that occur when people stop using their common sense. Anybody else have any interesting links/stories?" Read on for examples of what bobej means.
bobej1977's article examples:
and"In December, Australia's TV Channel 7 reported that many schools across the country, at the behest of the Australasian Performing Rights Association, were discouraging parents from making keepsake movies of their kids' appearances in Christmas musicals, because recording the holiday songs might violate copyright law. [Seven Network Ltd. (Australia), 12-22-03]"
Are these decent examples of the absurd, that make a fair to strong case for fair-use? What examples might you have?"In February 2004, according to a New York Times report, cuts from 'White Album' by the band Sonic Youth were being listed for downloading on Apple's iTunes online store, and included was 'Silence,' a 63-second cut consisting of no sound at all, for which fans were nonetheless expected to pay the regular iTunes price of 99 cents. (In a subsequent clarification, a Sonic Youth spokesman said 'Silence' would only be sold to purchasers who bought all of the album's cuts.) [New York Times, 2-9-04, 2-16-04]"
Old article, but good (several examples) (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's one from a few year ago. (Score:5, Informative)
So, you like to sing at camp [s-t.com]?
-- MarkusQ
Re:Here's one from a few year ago. (Score:2)
OT: Why would you name a childrens' day camp Diablo? It's spanish for "devil", for crying out loud! That's freakin' creepy.
Why would you name a childrens' day camp Diablo? (Score:2)
I nearly killed myself on a bike coming down it once. Went to boarding school at it's base.
From 3200 feet, you can see San Francisco and Nevada from the top in
clear weather, lots of fossils and a great place to hang glide
Re:Here's one from a few year ago. (Score:3, Informative)
Reverse engineering (Score:2, Interesting)
In other words... (Score:3, Interesting)
s/obscenity/fair use/
Phththpht (Score:1, Informative)
The CORRECT quote is from Justice Potter Stewart (Supreme Court, Jacobellis v. Ohio):
Re:Phththpht (Score:1)
Of course, since it's all SCOTUS stuff, there's no copyright, so let's just call me a lazy bastard...
Illegal Art (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Illegal Art (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Illegal Art (Score:2)
Silence costs (Score:4, Interesting)
The second example of purchasing a silent track isn't as ridiculous as it sounds (pun intended). There are people who will intentionally pay for what they consider to be art, or at least to reward the creator(s) of what they consider to be art. A silent track certainly falls into this category.
What you failed to mention is that the track violates Copyright law. Here's a note about a related case [findlaw.com] concerning silence, plus a thread on SlashNOT [slashnot.com] that includes links to the CNN article. That is the part that is really sad.
Re:Silence costs (Score:3, Interesting)
Back in the 1970's, there was a '45' put out that was several minutes of silence. Many bars and restaurants reported that it was the most-played selection on their juke box. Lots of people were willing to put out a nickel or dime or whatever to prevent any music being played for a few minutes.
I wonder if that "recording" had a copyright notice?
Churches using copyrighted worship music. (Score:3, Interesting)
A friend of mine and I were both musicians and worship leaders at the time and he was the one who told me about the issue. He said he'd probably sue to get reimbursed for copyright violations, even from a church. I still don't think I would, but then I never depended on my music for my livelihood.
Many years later this ethical/spiritual debate was brought into the online world when P2P filesharing service ZPoc [christdot.org] was shut down. I didn't know about this one myself until after the fact. I think it's an interesting area of the filesharing and fair use debates, since the issue of morality vs. legality is often brought up on both sides.
Alex.
Re:Churches using copyrighted worship music. (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's how the process works. To create a English new translation you pull out the original texts along with your Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic dictionaries. Find the most accurate translation. Then look at the translations done in a couple dozen other modern versions, and make sure you didn't translate it the same way. Odd are you did. So use different phrasing or synonyms. Instead of "Blessed are the peacemakers", write "Those who keep the peace will be blessed". Never mind that this can subtly change the meaning of the verse.
Copyright is a temporal law, not a spiritual law. The rules and regulations of mankind should never take precedence over the law of God.
Re:Churches using copyrighted worship music. (Score:2)
Re:Churches using copyrighted worship music. (Score:1)
Happy Birthday (Score:3, Interesting)
If your kid has a birthday party and you hire a clown to come in and he sings Happy Birthday, the law was broken. What kind of bullshit is that?
Re:Happy Birthday (Score:4, Informative)
I think it's pathetic that a melody written in 1893 is still covered by copyright... barring additional changes in law, the song's now protected at least 2030!
The actual details behind Happy Birthday are kind of interesting... a good synopsis is available from the reference librarian's best friend, Snopes [snopes.com].
Re:Happy Birthday (Score:5, Informative)
It's not illegal to sing "Happy Birthday," it's illegal to sing it publicly and not pay the requisite fee to ASCAP [ascap.com] or whichever organization handles the collecting of fees and distribution of royalties to composers.
Re:Happy Birthday (Score:2)
That would probably be the Harry Fox Agency [harryfox.com]. And, by the way, I would imagine a clown being hired professionally to sing "Happy Birthday" would come under this category (as distinct from the bunch of six year old friends singing around the lunch table).
So what does it mean? (Score:2)
So, what does "bobej" mean? I couldn't find any clarification on a Google search [google.com]. "jebob" returned a cute baby [weizmann.ac.il], but I don't think he's posting on Slashdot yet.
Inquiring minds want to know! And they have karma to burn!
Re:So what does it mean? (Score:1)
Silence? How'd they get the rights to that? (Score:1)
nothing but silence and not paying him royalties.
Teaching of course (Score:2)
They also have a library of audio cds and dvds for music history courses. The professors used to be given a stack of cds to teach the class with (how can you teach a music history course without music, right?) but now they're