Fair Use and the Law

[cybrax]

What constitutes 'Fair Use' of copyrighted material as defined in law?
Does a site have to abide by the legal system of the country given in its
registered trading address or that of the country where the web server is physically?

[descalzo]

To quote the US code:

for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

But it is used a a guideline. Often it comes down to a court ruling.

Another doctrine is "fair dealing"

Not a lawyer, but I would guess that one would be bound by both jurisdictions. If nothing else, the host for the site (ie physical location of servers) would have to abide by its country's laws.

[cybrax]

Uuugh Fair Dealing.. have been butting heads over at another forum with that one.

One forum that shall remain nameless is now deleting content, be it code snippet or quotation
unless you have the author's written permission.

[descalzo]

Well, it is the forum's right to control what is posted. Perhaps they have gotten some nasty Cease & Desist letters from owners of some of the code

[Corey]

Both where the business is registered and the location of the servers matter regarding laws. For example if x10 was located in a country that does not participate in DMCA but the servers were in the US we would still be obligated to follow the laws regarding DMCA requests. Same goes for if we were registered in the US but our servers were elsewhere.


Unfortunately the laws are outdated and even then what currently passes in another country regarding internet law can change at anytime... for example megaupload and demonoid. :P

[cybrax]

Thanks Corey.
Content is like a tourist and has to obey the local law & customs
on its travels around the web.

[Livewire]

Thanks Corey.
Content is like a tourist and has to obey the local law & customs
on its travels around the web.

That's probably the best way I've heard Fair Use described to date