[Leica] Re: Fair use

[s.dimitrov at charter.net (Slobodan Dimitrov)]

This is what the gov. says about fair usage. However, if the  
copyright holder feels that the copyright is threatened, they are  
welcome to pursue a law suit for infringement. Further, more often  
than not, money changing hands as an accommodation over the perceived  
infringement usually solves most problems. It's rarely the principle  
of the thing.

Q.) How much of someone else's work can I use without getting  
permission?

A.) Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is  
permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for  
purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly  
reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific  
number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of  
a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all  
the circumstances. See FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21,  
Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians.
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html

sd



On Feb 22, 2009, at 6:53 AM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:

> This morning the CBS TV show "Sunday Morning" featured the work of  
> Shepard Fairy, the street artist whose rip off of the AP photo of  
> Barack Obama sparked a lawsuit. While not exactly condoning Fairy's  
> actions, the story tried to justify the point that artists were  
> free to violate the copyright laws if it was done in the name of  
> art. Examples used included Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup can and  
> Marcel Duchamp's Mona Lisa with a moustache. Apart from the  
> inconvenient fact that the Mona Lisa was never copyrighted, does  
> the LUG consider this "Fair Use." Could I take one of Gee Bee's  
> pictures of the Lake Country, stick a sunflower on it, and call it  
> 'Kansas as it should be."
>
> How much alteration of an image does the LUG think is necessary  
> before a work can be considered original and not derivative? Is it  
> the actual image that is important or the artist's or  
> photographer's intent? As a point of reference, my wife, who is a  
> well respected artist, refuses to paint from a photograph which  
> she, herself, has not taken. She won't even paint from any of mine.  
> (I hope this is a tribute to her sterling character and not a  
> critique of my photographs.)
>
> Larry Z
>
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