[CRS_META] Copyright violations on email lists

[Tim C.]

ROBERT CAVANAUGH wrote:
> The CRS Board recently received a complaint from an
> author concerning the reprint of one of his works in a
> message on our email list without his permission.  As
> a result and at the request of the author, the CRS had
> to request Milepost to to expunge the archived post. 
> There is a $35 fee per record for each post deleted
> from the archive. 
> 
> I have added a paragraph to our List Rules:
> http://www.calorierestriction.org/Mailing_Lists#rules
> regarding Copyright material.
> 
> Please review the addition to the rules and post
> comments here on Meta if you believe additional
> changes are warranted.
> 
> Bob  

What is the best strategy to communicate fair use?  The rules as
written state directly, "to reprint all or part of an article, you
must ask for and receive permission from the copyright owner".

Here is some shamelessly copied info on fair use:

| § 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use40
|
| Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair
| use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in
| copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that
| section, 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.
|
| The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding
| of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the
| above factors.
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107

Without fair use, no outside works could be quoted.

The onerous DMCA did create so-called Safe Harbor provisions which
may be applicable:

http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise33.html

Without telling people HOW to respect copyright (link, attribute,
quote selectively), there may be little point in having a rule.

Are these reasonable guidelines?:

- If the abstract or paper is freely available, then just link to it.
The uninterested would not click the link or read the post so little
is lost aside from saving some people a trip to the interweb.

- If the abstract or paper paper is not available, then quote
selectively and reference as you would a journal.  I suspect quoting
the abstract of a paper may be OK if it is considered a small portion.

Speaking of rules, these two versions of the rules ought to rectified
and reduced to one:

http://www.calorierestriction.org/Mailing_Lists#rules
http://www.calorierestriction.org/node/130

Some aspects of the longer format version do not apply anymore
(e.g., "X-noarchive").  From a convenience point of view, I like
a shorter list.  I am willing to review this and submit something
to Meta later.

Lastly, is it possible to have an official statement of policy
posted to the list (with a fair use statement)?  This would
aid enforcement.

Do we want to start now or discuss further?  Compliance will
not be overnight and is not likely to ever be perfect.
Perfection is actually a fiction in this context given the
ambiguities.  Like with the trim rule, there is a bit of
retraining and posters must adapt to new list norms.

-Tim C.


Tangent:
Here are some crazy examples of copyright abuse on the net:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_versus_the_Internet#Notable_legal_actions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Shortcake#Controversy

The copyright owner wastes their money on a lawyer, the alleged
"violator" complies with a takedown notice at little cost, and the
rest of world just think less of the copyright holder.  To this day,
and this is no lie, I will not eat a strawberry shortcake or shake
Tom Cruise's hand.