Posts Tagged ‘fair use’
Weekend Links!
* Big fair use decision: specific commentary on the original work is not required for a fair use defense.
* Finding common ground with Senator Coburn: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude major professional sports leagues from qualifying as tax-exempt organizations.
* Gasp! Many students stay away from online courses in subjects they deem especially difficult or interesting, according to a study released this month by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College. The finding comes just as many highly selective colleges are embracing online learning and as massive open online courses are gaining popularity and standing.
* “What we’re saying is that bargain-basement (clothing) is automatically leading towards these types of disasters,” John Hilary, executive director at British charity War on Want, told Reuters.
* Bad Robot will adapt 11/22/63.
* Canada gets it right: “The legal test for a true volunteer arrangement looks at several factors, but merely agreeing to work without pay does not in itself make you a volunteer,” Ministry of Labour spokesperson Jonathon Rose wrote in an email. See also Natalia Cecire:
Like the hypothetical minimum-wage high schooler whose income serves as pocket money, non-essential and destined for “fun,” the youthful volunteer, who may very well intrinsically enjoy the work, authorizes a category of labor exploitation that is not only okay but also okay to take as the norm for the labor of cultural preservation. “I can get you a twenty-year-old!” is, in that sense, not a labor solution but its opposite: a commitment to the norm that this work will be unpaid.
* Whitewashing and manwashing cinema.
* Mother Jones profiles the great Tig Notaro.
* What BP Doesn’t Want You to Know About the 2010 Gulf Spill.
* And 66 behind-the-scenes photos from the filming of The Empire Strikes Back.
Fair Use Absolutism
Isn’t the Downfall meme transparently fair use? If this isn’t fair use, what would be?
Bloggers, Know Your Rights
The EFF has updated its legal guide for bloggers. Via Boing Boing.
When can I borrow someone’s images for my blog post?
Images are subject to the same copyright and fair use laws as written materials, so here too you’ll want to think about the fair use factors that might apply. Is the image used in a transformative way? Are you taking only what’s necessary to convey your point? A thumbnail (reduced-size) image, or a portion of a larger image is more likely to be fair use than taking an entire full-size image. If you want to go beyond fair use, look for Creative Commons licensed images.
I break this guideline all the time. I blog from the outskirts of the law.
Wizard People, Dear Reader
This is absolutely ancient, so ancient that I somehow either completely missed it the first time or else saw it but unwisely decided not to bother—but on the advice of one of summer students we watched the first Harry Potter movie with the “Wizard People, Dear Reader” parody track, and the results did not in any way disappoint.
YouTube’s got it for you, all synced up and ready.
Slackblogging
As you can see, I’ve been slack blogging the last day or so—I’ve been catching up with other things. Here are a few Friday links to keep us busy:
* I’ve got a short review in the Indy of Harvey Pekar’s new book on the history of Students for a Democratic Society.
* Joseph Romm of Climate Progress has an article at Salon arguing “it won’t be easy but we can fix our oil and climate problems at the same time.”
Thus we come to one of the biggest questions of our time: Is humanity wise enough not to pursue carbon-intensive alternative fuels, even though pretty much all of them are economically profitable at current oil prices?
Wisdom! Curses! Our one weakness!
* A judge has ruled that Wal-Mart doesn’t have a trademark on the smiley face.
* Also at Boing Boing, a bed that will protect you from the terrorists.