Klarinet Archive - Posting 000233.txt from 2009/02

From: Michael Nichols <mrn.clarinet@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Fair Use
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:18:37 -0500

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 12:26 AM, Kevin Fay <kevin.fay.home@-----.net> wrote:

> The bottom line here is that you are taking an extremely aggressive position
> on fair use. I really don't care - we can always use test cases. If you're
> the guy that brings down the farce of the Sonny Bono law that put public
> domain music back into copyright, I'm all for it.

Kevin's right. Even I'm going to tell you to play it safe. Even if
you're ultimately right about whether what you're doing is fair use,
if somebody sues you and you have to prove it, it's still going to
cost you.

> OTOH, to the extent that you advocate that good working people - like
> schoolteachers - photocopy their careers into oblivion, your public advocacy
> is dangerous. If you Google any combination of "copyright" "policy" and
> "music" you find hundreds of school districts and academic institutions all
> telling their staff the same thing - follow the joint organization
> guidelines, or risk getting fired. Why? Easy - because the schools don't
> want to Write Big Checks when you Do Something Stupid.

That's right. And while the Guidelines are not the law, they arguably
serve a more important purpose from a practical standpoint--lawsuit
avoidance. If you follow the Guidelines, the major publishers aren't
very likely to sue you. If you don't, on the other hand, they might
think they can sue you and sue you anyway, even if in reality they
don't have a good case against you. I don't care for some aspects of
the Guidelines, but they do provide some level of clarity in a field
of law that is in serious need of it.

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