RE: DMCA alternatives

["Bolick, Bob" <Bob_Bolick@mcgraw-hill.com>]

If those professors would point me to non-dicta references to fair use as
a right, then I guess I'd stand corrected.  That's not a rhetorical
statement. I would like to look them up.  I'm unaware of them -- if they
exist.

If they don't, then I think we should try to be precise wherever possible.

Robert Bolick
Vice President, New Business Development
McGraw-Hill Professional
2 Penn Plaza, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10121
T.(212) 904-5934  F.5569  M. 646-431-8121

Chairman, AAP Copyright Committee
Treasurer, International DOI Foundation

-----Original Message-----
From: Carrie Russell [mailto:crussell@alawash.org]
Sent: Monday, June 03, 2002 11:49 AM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu; Bob_Bolick@mcgraw-hill.com
Subject: RE: DMCA alternatives

Bob:  I don't think you can say for a fact that fair use is only a defense
against a claim of infringement.  There are plenty of intellectual
"property" law professors that would say otherwise.  And, there are court
cases where judges refer to fair use as a right.  And it could be viewed
as another exception to the exclusive rights of the copyright holder since
fair use is one of the ways to limit the statutory monopoly that is
copyright law. If we did not have these limits, the law would be too
strict and actually work against the purpose of the copyright law, "to
advance the progress of science and the useful arts."

I think it is more accurate to say that the user, consumer, library etc
communities in general view fair use as a right.  And that the "content
community," in general, views fair use as merely a defense against a claim
of infringement.

It's okay that we disagree on this. Other things we can agree on.
--carrie russell


Carrie Russell, Copyright Specialist
American Library Association
Office for Information Technology Policy
1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW  Suite 403
Washington, DC 20004-1701
(202)628-8421
crussell@alawash.org