How Confusion & Lack Of Clarity In Copyright Law Make Reviewing Poems Difficult
from the can't-quote-this dept
techinabox alerts us to a short NY Times piece by David Orr, in which he notes yet another problem with copyright law, in that publishers are afraid to publish reviews of poems that actually dare to quote the poem, because it might be considered copyright infringement. At issue is that it's not clear what would be considered fair use in quoting a poem -- especially a short one. There are different theories about what's okay, but those theories don't seem to fit well with certain poems. Orr gives an example of a one line poem, and notes that quoting just 5% (a standard some suggest) would mean quoting 2 letters. As Orr notes the whole thing is an "incomprehensible system," and most publishers won't touch anything that might be interpreted as infringing, because they just don't want the headache of a legal battle.Of course, quoting for the purpose of reviews should be fair use. The US Copyright Office itself uses:
"quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment;"as an example of what qualifies for fair use. But, tragically, the "excerpts" part of that standard is unfortunately vague, and it limits what people can do.
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You will never get an objective standard for fair use any more than you will get an objective standard for what is reasonable. Not everything in life admits to the specificity some seem to demand.
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Did people noticed that in some countries Youtube now has a license feature that lets you search for CC Common works?
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That central database should be paid for by copyright owners that should have to renew their copyrights every 10 years to get full protections of the law. The price of that should be based on a fixed minimum and a dynamic price based on earnings and whichever is higher should be charged.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/12/tech/angry-birds-satire-politics/index.html
Could NinjaVideos use the same defense, I don't know but would be interesting to see where that leads, it surely will open up a very interesting debate since politicians will need to balanced their freedoms against copyright law.
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Explosion of networks coming soon to a city near you.
Entertainment industry screams like a girl and pull its hairs out after discovering that the new gatekeepers are Google and Apple.
ROI for old telcos and entertaiment industry disapears, while Google launches Google Pictures LLC.
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Of course copytards would never agree with that, but what the law says in America?
If copytards really want everybody to enforce their laughable laws they will need to give people some tools to do so, is there a place where people can do a search to find out if some material is infringing or not?
Establishments now need to consider everything copyrighted and not print anything how much money is not circulating in the economy because of that, and according to a few very dishonest people that is enough to claim irreparable harm to the whole of the economy like the numbers from the MPAA.
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Poets Are Free To Fix This
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http://www.copyright.com/content/cc3/en/toolbar/education/resources/copyright_basicsthe movie.html
It isn't too bad until nearing the end.
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Reviews are generally welcome
Now if I published a book of poems, I would consider it perfectly fine for one poem to be quoted in full as a fair use in a review, or a few lines of up to three works. Any less than that, and there is no context. Any more, well they are republishing my works and I would expect payment for it. But I would rather be reviewed than ignored.
It is a bit like those song lyric websites - they are effectively republishing copyright works but it generally benefits the author.
Compare this with a film review that tells the plot of the film - now that is a very significant violation.
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Re:
(c) 2011
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Techdirt = copyright & patent whining?
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If you ever come across my poetry? Do whatever you like. Laws besides copyright exist to catch those exceptional cases where I should care.
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Would you prefer a hard and fast 1% rule Mike?
Should we adjust the overall, pretty much functional laws in order to accommodate a very small percentage of all cases where people can't manage to understand the law?
I think the answer is always the same: If you cannot be sure what you are doing is legal, just don't do it. Call the rights holder, and ask permission. Don't just assume.
There. You don't have to fix the law, you just have to fix your attitude.
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Re: Techdirt = copyright & patent whining?
law of human nature
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ask permission
hmm... okay! let's start
in order to troll this website you must ask for permission from the admin, which i assume is mike
oops! what's that? you didn't ask him if you could troll this article? well, i hope you're happy, freetard, you've just infringed on the trollright of this site
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Re: Techdirt = copyright & patent whining?
Or are you afraid that people will take some decision and catch you with your pants down?
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Re: Techdirt = copyright & patent whining?
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Re: Re:
Did you ask your mom permission to use the computer on a school day?
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Re: Re: Techdirt = copyright & patent whining?
I'm going to read Fox for their brilliant analysis on "how to lose customers and influence piracy" today!
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What if the work is older than 30 years? And you cannot find the right's holder?
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One Line Poem
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Re: One Line Poem
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Re: Re: Re: Techdirt = copyright & patent whining?
Much more insightful :p
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feel free to quote this verse i wrote about the lede i did just read.
lest lawyers seek to raid your purse
allegedly to reimburse
the author, but not really.
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"God"
Actually it's slightly lower than 5% since 64 isn't evenly divisible. After all, I wouldn't want to rob Mr. Nash of his duly owed wages by quoting 4 characters.
Oh wait... he's been dead for 40 years. Still, present copyright laws will encourage him to continue to produce for at least another 30 years. Meantime, we're not allowed to quote him, except for fair-use excerpts.
I'm sure you can see the man's cleverness and wit from this excerpt. Enjoy!
P.S. Here's an excerpt from another Ogden Nash poem:
""
Sorry, 5% of that one is less than one character. Let's see who can quote the entire poem first!
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There's an opportunity in there...
Or better yet, just a list of the most commonly used sentences about, say, I don't know...copyright protection? Then publish that collection as a volume of poetry, and send out cease & desist letters to anyone who dares publish and infringe on one of your works.
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