Category Archives: Fair Use

Books : A Plan To Scan

Posted on 13 August 2009 by Rick Mason

A very straightforward and readable overview of the issues surrounding Google’s book scanning project appeared in yesterdays Financial Times :  Books : A plan to scan. A prime focus of the analysis is the Orphan Works issue, books that fall … Continue reading →

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OCLC Withdraws Records Policy

Posted on 29 June 2009 by Rick Mason

The Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship has released their final report on OCLC’s proposed policy for use of records (pdf), and after reviewing the report, OCLC has formally withdrawn the policy. This conclusion to the … Continue reading →

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Copyright Law, Love and Hate

Posted on 16 May 2009 by Rick Mason

Cory Doctorow has an interesting take on the differing attitude of copyright between those who wish to wish to honor a creative work and those who wish to diminish it.  An excerpt: “The upshot of this is that you’re on … Continue reading →

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Google Book Search Settlement Links

Posted on 6 May 2009 by Rick Mason

Peter Murray has an incredibly good selection of links about the Google Book Search Settlement on the Disruptive Library Technology Jester blog.  Really.  Spend some time perusing them.

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Confusing Assistance with Performance

Posted on 1 March 2009 by Rick Mason

Amazon.com has given in to the Publisher’s Guild on the issue of text-to-speech capabilities in the Kindle 2. In their press release, Amazon states up front that “Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative … Continue reading →

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Google Book Search Copyright Settlement

Posted on 28 October 2008 by Rick Mason

Google has reached a settlement with the group of publishers who filed suit in 2005 over the book digitization project.  It is a legal document with many elements, and I cannot hope to make an overall evaluation of the agreement … Continue reading →

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TC is PO’d over AP

Posted on 20 June 2008 by Rick Mason

An interesting situation is brewing over at the TechCrunch blog.  Michael Arrington, upset over the Associated Press going after bloggers who quote from AP stories, has argued that the AP is not taking Fair Use into consideration and has declared … Continue reading →

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An Interesting Orphan Works Example

Posted on 13 May 2008 by Rick Mason

In a brief essay titled Orphan Works:  A Rant, posted on ©ollecanea, Kenny Crews presents an interestingly common example of how a common encounter results in an orphan work. “…I kindly handed the camera to a total stranger, requesting a … Continue reading →

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Primer on Copyright Liability and Fair Use

Posted on 7 February 2008 by Rick Mason

Primer on Copyright Liability and Fair Use is part of the Citizen Media Law Project’s Legal Guide, scheduled to launch later this month.   It contains a great introduction/overview of what is allowed and not allowed with copyright.  Best of all, … Continue reading →

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Copyfraud

Posted on 30 January 2008 by Rick Mason

The topic of Copyfraud has been on my mind for the past few months.  It is interesting how once you start noticing something relatively subtle, you can reach a point where you start seeing it all the time.  This has … Continue reading →

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Two Essays by Eric Lease Morgan

Posted on 7 December 2007 by Rick Mason

I have run into two essays by Eric Lease Morgan this week that paint an excellent picture of today’s challenges for library technology and possible future solutions within our reach: Catalog Collectivism : XC and the Future of Library Search … Continue reading →

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Fair Use and Copyright

Posted on 9 September 2007 by Rick Mason

I find myself thinking about copyright and fair use more often lately. As our use of technology to disseminate and retrieve information grows, the limits and freedoms of copyright and fair use, very intertwined, become less and less defined. Georgia … Continue reading →

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Deceptive Copyright Notices

Posted on 3 August 2007 by Rick Mason

Deceptive Copyright Notices is a post by Karen Coyle post about those notices that restrict the reader’s/viewer’s rights beyond what is allowable under copyright, and an interesting complaint filed with the FTC. Also included is a neat reversal of the FBI … Continue reading →

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Google Book Search and Copyright

Posted on 7 June 2007 by Rick Mason

A blog post by Richard Charkin, Chairman of Macmillan UK, about he and a colleague “stealing” a couple of computers from the Google booth at BookExpo in order to make a point about Google’s placing snippets of books online makes … Continue reading →

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Copyright Discussion

Posted on 9 April 2007 by Rick Mason

On Coyle’s InFormation, a blog written by the ever-interesting Karen Coyle, there is a discussion about the transcripts of a Section 108 Study Group meeting hosted by the Library of Congress on the topic of copyright, libraries and digitization.  These meetings are happening … Continue reading →

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Fair Use Act

Posted on 28 February 2007 by Rick Mason

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has information on their site about HR 1201, a.k.a. The Fair Use Act, currently working its way through the U.S. House of Representatives, that would strengthen the fair use concepts that have been in existence … Continue reading →

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