[EAS]Is Fair Use Dying?

[pjk]

Subject:   Is Fair Use Dying?

from CIT INFOBITS	September 2002		No. 51		ISSN 1521-9275
<http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/>
......................................................................

IS FAIR USE DYING?

"Recent actions by Congress and the federal courts -- and many more
all-too-common acts of cowardice by publishers, colleges, developers
of search engines, and other concerned parties -- have demonstrated
that fair use, while not quite dead, is dying. And everyone who
reads, writes, sings, does research, or teaches should be up in
arms. The real question is why so few people are complaining." So
writes Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan (Department of Culture &
Communication, New York University) in his recent opinion piece,
"Copyright as Cudgel" (THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, August 2,
2002, p. B7). Vaidhyanathan recounts events, laws, and lawsuits that
threaten academe's right to fair use of intellectual property in the
U.S. The article is available at
http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i47/47b00701.htm

The Chronicle of Higher Education [ISSN 0009-5982] is published
weekly by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc., 1255 Twenty-third
Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA; tel: 202-466-1000; fax:
202-452-1033; Web: http://chronicle.com/

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The academic community's acquiescence to the erosion of fair use has
been commented on here before. Perhaps too many are developing their
own preoccupations with intellectual property to notice. But even if
you don't read Lawrence Lessig's call to arms "The Future of Ideas"
<http://www.yale.edu/engineering/eng-info/msg00941.html> you should
at least read this Chronicle article.  Nothing much is at stake,
only the future of academic freedom. --PJK