Re: petition for US authors, artists, and musicians

In re: snippets:

AFAIK, and IANAL, film and music fair use case law is far more  
restrictive than that applying to prose books, because a tiny portion  
CAN be the central, critical piece that gives the whole value.

And as for the educational use of snippets in a text on performance: I  
suspect that comedians feel and can argue that each joke is a separate  
creation, and copyrightable. Therefore the snippets were a large  
portion of the whole.

And last, but not least, "educational use" isn't a textbook you're  
putting up for sale. It's also not copying large parts of anything,  
even for direct classroom use, one time. (The Kinkos case in the 90s  
pretty much nailed that one down, IIRC.)


> If they are in other contracts involving someone else's rightful  
> physical
> property (leased or rented but not passed from owner to business in  
> a sale),
> at the point the business files bankruptcy, the courts cannot  
> commandeer and
> auction off the property itself belonging to the rightful owner to  
> satisfy
> the debts of the business in bankruptcy (as they can with assets  
> belonging
> to the business and purchased...admittedly including contracts, if  
> they find
> a buyer either altruistic enough or suicidal enough to buy them and  
> take on
> fuming authors), whether the contract is in breach or not. They CAN  
> hold it
> for a time. They can set up a situation where the business can  
> continue to
> use that property for the length of contract while still in breach.  
> But they
> cannot just take someone else's physical property to satisfy the  
> debts of
> the bankrupt business, as far as I've been taught.

I think you'll find that courts can and do seize and auction off  
property in the custody of a bankrupt, even when title is held by  
others. Examples I have heard of include cars in a mechanics' shop,  
and of course, the widespread seizure of books in a distributor's  
warehouse.

(Remember how everyone thought PGW was heroic in their conduct during  
the AMS bankruptcy a couple of years ago?)

FWIW, I make every single one of my clients who discusses distribution  
with me do their very best to get a UCC-1 filed perfecting their  
interest in their own inventory before going into a warehouse.



Marion Gropen
Gropen Associates, Inc.
By-The-Question Consulting,  Tools for Publishers, & Classes
www.GropenAssoc.com
Her blog: www.GropenAssoc.com/blog





------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
-------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:[email protected] 
    mailto:ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/