Courts have recognized the fair use doctrine for centuries, but Congress formally codified the principle in the 1976 Copyright Act. It spells out the factors that determine when an unauthorized copy is a fair use. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the most important factor is “the purpose and character of the use.” It asks (as the court wrote in 1994) whether a new work “merely supersedes the objects of the original creation, or instead adds something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the first with new expression, meaning, or message; it asks, in other words, whether and to what extent the new work is transformative.” ...Viewed in that light, Google Print is clearly a transformative use. It has a “further purpose” and “different character” than the books it indexes. Its value is not derived from the creativity of book authors, but from the innovation of its engineers. Another factor the courts must consider is “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.” It seems clear that Google Print’s impact on the book market can be only positive for authors and publishers. Google Print displays only brief excerpts of books that are still under copyright. A user will have to obtain a printed copy of the book if she wishes to read more. That can only increase book sales. The Constitution states that the purpose of copyright is to “promote the progress of science and the useful arts.” In other words, intellectual property protections increase public access to creative works by giving authors the incentive to produce them. Given Google Print’s tremendous potential to help readers find the books they want to read, it would be perverse to invoke copyright law to strangle the service in its cradle.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/22/2005 10:46:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
