At 06:37 PM 3/8/01 -0500, Greg London wrote: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Fair use has been upheld in law and in tort for > > some 70 years or more. > >really? I thought the Betamax decision was what >started it. could you give a quick history lesson? > >Greg I am certainly not qualified to give a dissertation on fair use in tort, but I can point you to the following link (with sublinks): http://fairuse.stanford.edu/primary/#caselaw There are a few really interesting cases, and the oldest cited there is a 1914 decision regarding the infringing use of excerpts or diagrams from texts in a classroom setting (something I was pretty sure of was covered by Title 17 and therefore didn't infringe). The Court found that the notes in question (no display available sadly) were lifted so completely from the text that the publisher had a reasonable expectation of loss and thus went further than fair use. Interesting reading, all told. But in short, fair use has been debated for quite a bit longer than the Betamax decision. VC
