I was thinking about copyrights while taking a shower last night (what, you don’t?) and I thought of a funny loop-hole that Bittorrent and other similar p2p places could take advantage of. Fair-use (the thing that nobody used to worry about because fair-use wasn’t even necessary, most activities in general just weren’t even covered by copyright (thanks LL) allows for very small sections of a piece of copyrighted work to be excerpted.
What if I only allowed someone who wanted to download a file from me to download a small percentage (within the law; I don’t remember if it’s something like 5-30 seconds, or based on a percentage or which) of the file and nothing more. If enough people spread a file via the same mechanism it would work, though only for the very most popular files given my success rate recently downloading files from gnutella.
I’m sure it wouldn’t work in reality for a couple of reasons. 1) You might be allowed to give out a small excerpt, but could you give out a different small excerpt to different people? 2) Breaking the spirit of the law pisses judges off. For better or worse it seems they can usually find away around it.
Interesting thought, but probably not fair use. The amount/proportion of the work taken is only one of the factors courts consider in determining fair use. The others are the purpose of the use (commercial/nonprofit educational), nature of the work (fictional works get more protection than nonfiction), and effect of the use on the potenial market for/value of the work. See http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
It seems like even if you only allowed a small amount of data to be copied, the other three factors would probably weigh against you. The best thing Bittorrent has going for them is the Grokster decision from California last year. It said that companies can’t be liable for contributory or vicarious infringement for distributing software that end-users use to infringe when the companies don’t retain control over users (among other things). Hence, RIAA/MPAA suits against direct infringers.
I do agree with Lessig’s point that fair use is really an illusion for most individual users due to the transaction costs in the legal system. But your shower-thought example would be a pretty tough one to argue.
Left by Daniel on July 23rd, 2004
By the way, Jordan, I still think you need to go to law school. You probably have a better intuitive grasp of the concepts than most of the incoming first years.
Left by Daniel on July 23rd, 2004
I didn’t think it would be to practicable, but hadn’t thought about those reasons. Good stuff.
It’s funny, three years sounds like an awful long time right now, but when you consider I’ve been living in gainesville for twice that already, it’s probably not so bad. Besides, that’s what I’ve got my sugar-momma for, right?
Left by Jordan on July 23rd, 2004
Exactly.
Or, if you plan to be in Gainesville for a LONG time, I’ve heard of UF staff using their free course credits and doing law school a few credit hours at a time.
Left by Daniel on July 23rd, 2004
So Jaime counts the pills all day while you take law classes on the side? Sounds like a plan.
By the way, I think it would be beyond hilarious if all Jaime ever listened at work (especially if it’s research, with lots of undergrad RA’s) was drug-themed rap music, viz. Grindin’ by the Clipse, D12’s Purple Pills, the majority of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, etc. There would be something appropriately Office Space about that.
Left by Dav(id) on July 24th, 2004
So, do you intend to stay in Gainesville now or are you still looking at other options?
Left by Evan on July 25th, 2004