Dan Bricklin on "DRM" and Fair Use

(From the SATN Blog.  Dan Bricklin comments on the recent 9th Circuit
finding that thumbnails in a search engine constitute fair use.  I was
unable to convert the text of the PDF of the finding.  -- Seth)


> http://www.satn.org/archive/2003_07_06_archive.html#105762868460286406


Fair Use Ruling 

I found this through Slashdot.org: The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
issued an opinion about Fair Use. The issue was whether a search engine that
indexed images from the web and presented them as thumbnails was fair use
under copyright law. They decided that it was fair use and allowed under
law.

I found a couple of things interesting here: The concept of Fair Use (the
right to use copyrighted material without permission in certain cases) is
very important to the workings of society and was part of the compromises
made when drafting copyright law. Digital Rights Management (DRM) will make
fair use harder to be accomplished, even when it's legal. Reading this
opinion helps you learn about the concept of Fair Use and see why it can be
so at odds with DRM. "Transformative uses" weigh in the favor of allowing
use and was key to this case. A transformative use adds "...a further
purpose or different character..." rather than "...merely superseded the
object of the originals..." (searching vs. pretty pictures in this case).
These are the types of uses so hard to take into account with DRM. How do
you allow for unforeseen uses?

Read the opinion on the Court's web site
(http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/8E22982657C96BE188256D5C00518BF5/$file/0055521oop.pdf?openelement).

-- 

DRM is Theft!  We are the Stakeholders!

New Yorkers for Fair Use
http://www.nyfairuse.org

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