Three recent, interesting, and quite possibly related news items:
Viacom has dropped its (successful) effort to have a parody of the "Colbert Report" pulled from YouTube, apparently acknowledging that the parody is a fair use under U.S. law.
In a lawsuit filed on behalf of 11 recording companies in China, where there is no DMCA, the "No. 2 Intermediate People's Court" has ordered Yahoo! China to pay $27,000 in copyright damages because "pirated" music could be located through its search engine.
And Michael Geist, a Canadian law professor, offers an interesting take on U.S. efforts to "export" an industry-centric brand of copyright law, including our longer copyright terms and "anti-circumvention" protections, but, apparently, not our concept of fair use or DMCA-style safe harbors.
Comments (2)
I agree that a high-profile acknowledgment that anything is a fair use is big news. It actually suggests that the recent effort to urge more forceful assertion of a reasonable scope for fair use, as we have seen in the documentary film sector, might be more generalized. There really is an important role for fair use to play, and to see a company like Viacom acknowledge it lends support to its legitimacy.
Posted by Georgia Harper | April 25, 2007 8:39 PM
Posted on April 25, 2007 20:39
What's even more encouraging is that Viacom has taken this position not only with respect to the Colbert parody, but also as a matter of general principle. (See follow-up letter here.) It's unclear whether Viacom did so as a result of pressure or because it realizes how useful fair use can be to itself, but, either way, it's a good thing.
But what would be still more encouraging would be to see the content industry and the U.S. government recognize the same principles in the international arena . . . .
Those interested in seeing what the furor was all about can find the parody here.
Posted by Steve McDonald | April 26, 2007 9:57 AM
Posted on April 26, 2007 09:57