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Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright
In the increasingly complex and combative arena of copyright in the digital age, record companies sue college students over peer-to-peer music sharing, YouTube removes home movies because of a song playing in the background, and filmmakers are denied a distribution deal when some permissions “ i ” proves undottable. Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi chart a clear path through the confusion by urging a robust embrace of a principle long-embedded in copyright law, but too often poorly understood—fair use. By challenging the widely held notion that current copyright law has become unworkable and obsolete in the era of digital technologies, Reclaiming Fair Use promises to reshape the debate in both scholarly circles and the creative community.
This indispensable guide distills the authors’ years of experience advising documentary filmmakers, English teachers, performing arts scholars, and other creative professionals into no-nonsense advice and practical examples for content producers. Reclaiming Fair Use begins by surveying the landscape of contemporary copyright law—and the dampening effect it can have on creativity—before laying out how the fair-use principle can be employed to avoid copyright violation. Finally, Aufderheide and Jaszi summarize their work with artists and professional groups to develop best practice documents for fair use and discuss fair use in an international context. Appendixes address common myths about fair use and provide a template for creating the reader’s own best practices. Reclaiming Fair Use will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the law, creativity, and the ever-broadening realm of new media.
This indispensable guide distills the authors’ years of experience advising documentary filmmakers, English teachers, performing arts scholars, and other creative professionals into no-nonsense advice and practical examples for content producers. Reclaiming Fair Use begins by surveying the landscape of contemporary copyright law—and the dampening effect it can have on creativity—before laying out how the fair-use principle can be employed to avoid copyright violation. Finally, Aufderheide and Jaszi summarize their work with artists and professional groups to develop best practice documents for fair use and discuss fair use in an international context. Appendixes address common myths about fair use and provide a template for creating the reader’s own best practices. Reclaiming Fair Use will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the law, creativity, and the ever-broadening realm of new media.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 6, 2013
US copyright law is lopsided, swinging in favor of copyright holders. On a case-by-case basis, creators may be allowed to repurpose copyrighted material under fair use, but the litigious culture of corporate copyright holders often scares people away from working within their rights.
In Reclaiming Fair Use, authors Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi do an excellent job identifying and thinking critically about this culture of fear from repurposing material. And rather than being militant revolutionists of copyright law (or “copyleftists,” a term the book refers to that I enjoyed) they show how much improvement to the system can be achieved by working within the law.
For those interested in copyright law and how fair use is applied in the United States, the book is a must-read (elsewhere, fair use does not exist, a fact they discuss in their final chapter). It contains a good description of fair use, covers a complex history of its implementation, and has excellent appendices which cover myths about fair use and provide answers to a quiz throughout the book about what scenarios count as fair use or not.
At the heart of the book is the argument that fair use is easy for anybody to understand, something they were never quite able to convince me of, despite the clarity with which they talk about it. In the end, there is no hard-and-fast definition that applies in every case. But I agree with the essence of their argument, which is that understanding and using fair use is easier than taking down and rewriting all of copyright law. Activists who prefer the latter approach may accuse Aufderheide and Jaszi of the same thing as those who criticize liberal members of oppressive institutions — are those who put up with and work within the injustices of copyright no better than the oppressors themselves? I tend to think not, and this book provides a highly useful and fascinating study.
In Reclaiming Fair Use, authors Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi do an excellent job identifying and thinking critically about this culture of fear from repurposing material. And rather than being militant revolutionists of copyright law (or “copyleftists,” a term the book refers to that I enjoyed) they show how much improvement to the system can be achieved by working within the law.
For those interested in copyright law and how fair use is applied in the United States, the book is a must-read (elsewhere, fair use does not exist, a fact they discuss in their final chapter). It contains a good description of fair use, covers a complex history of its implementation, and has excellent appendices which cover myths about fair use and provide answers to a quiz throughout the book about what scenarios count as fair use or not.
At the heart of the book is the argument that fair use is easy for anybody to understand, something they were never quite able to convince me of, despite the clarity with which they talk about it. In the end, there is no hard-and-fast definition that applies in every case. But I agree with the essence of their argument, which is that understanding and using fair use is easier than taking down and rewriting all of copyright law. Activists who prefer the latter approach may accuse Aufderheide and Jaszi of the same thing as those who criticize liberal members of oppressive institutions — are those who put up with and work within the injustices of copyright no better than the oppressors themselves? I tend to think not, and this book provides a highly useful and fascinating study.
January 15, 2012
This is a great read for anyone interested in the shifting interpretations of copyright law in the digital age. The author presents a passionate defense of the fair use exemptions under copyright law, with numerous examples of how media companies try to discourage claims of fair use, along with excellent teaching examples of how to employ and document fair use in creative practice. A must-read for anyone who works in digital and print content industries.
November 7, 2021
Really an eye-opening book. This book showed me the importance of copyright law in all our lives. It also brought to my attention the efforts exerted by many people to help save us many freedoms that we mostly take for granted.
April 18, 2012
I should know better than to try and read an entire work-related book at work, but I finally made it through this one. If I didn't keep getting interrupted with work stuff, I would have made it through this one much more quickly -- this is an important topic, and Aufderheide and Jaszi write about it clearly and engagingly. The authors argue that fair use is a muscle, and if we don't get brave and start exercising it, it will gradually get taken away from us. The keystones of their work are the Code of Best Practices for Fair Use for various communities (the most established is one for documentary filmmakers and the newest is for academic and research libraries [woo hoo!]) that lay out agreed upon boundaries for fair use. Inspirational, confidence-building, and a great resource. Read this one if you use, reuse, or provide access to copyrighted content.
May 13, 2016
The most interesting part for me was the description of the shift to increasing usefulness of fair use, and how and when it happened. I hadn't really thought before about copyleftism badmouthing fair use, and fair use suffering as a result.
I would have loved more scenarios. I would really, really love if they published Appendix E ("Answers to Fair Use: You Be the Judge"), along with the questions, freely online.
I would have loved more scenarios. I would really, really love if they published Appendix E ("Answers to Fair Use: You Be the Judge"), along with the questions, freely online.
November 13, 2016
Excellent book on the fair use doctrine. Glad to see the pendulum swinging back to put some weight into fair use. I was expecting more of an overview and history of the doctrine, which was there, but the book also included a lot of practical application sections I wasn't expecting. Those parts appear useful, but weren't as interesting to me as the discussions on why fair use is important.
August 16, 2012
Read for an Ethics class (though not a requirement). A really interesting look into Fair Use and its history. I liked that the authors really stressed balance between the two sides of the issue. And the examples are really excellent.
February 11, 2012
An inspiring book about one of the most successful media policy initiatives of modern times.
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June 30, 2012Who knew copyright could be FASCINATING? Yes, I am totally serious!
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November 18, 2013Read by ACRL Member of the Week Pia M. Hunter. Learn more about Pia on the ACRL Insider blog.
May 13, 2015
Very interesting. A must read for authors and editors.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews