Lesson 10 - Copyright 9:

Still More on "Fair Use"

As we've seen,

copies of small excerpts tend to be FAIR,
copies for systematic news reporting, criticism, or parody tend to be FAIR, and
copies of unpublished works tend to be UNFAIR.
*Outside* the area covered by these three basic rules, there are two more:

COMMERCIAL copying is generally UNFAIR. "Commercial" here just means copying that makes the copier money.
It doesn't much matter (A) whether you're making money from subscribers or advertisers, (B) whether you're a for-profit organization or a non-profit-one, and (C) whether your ultimate goal is the betterment of mankind or just making a quick buck. If you're making money from the copying, you should probably ask the copyright owner for a license (which might mean having to pay him for it).
NONCOMMERCIAL copying is generally fair UNLESS the text you're copying is available for money (or for free in a place that carries advertising) either online or offline.

The test is: If this noncommercial copying became WIDESPREAD, would it *displace some sales* (or some advertising revenues)? If it will, it's unfair.

That's why it's a copyright infringement for you to send a copy of WordPerfect to a friend. Even if you're pretty sure your friend would never buy it himself, WordPerfect loses some money when this sort of copying becomes commonplace.

authors:

Larry Lessig David Post Eugene Volokh

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