One of the dilemmas facing all bloggers is the extent to which you should publish others material. The law blog, Adam Smith, Esq refers to this as he wrote a long piece about the AM law 100 and the American Lawyer has requested he takes the material down on the basis of copyright infringement. Adam Smith, Esq has requested some guidance from IP lawyers.
Whilst I am not an American attorney, I am in the process of doing a book review of International Libel & Privacy Handbook (editor - Charles J Glasser Jnr) which may provide some sound guidance on this topic.
A key issue is fair use and in Chapter 23 of Glasser's book, the New York attorney, Nancy E. Wolff of Wolff & Godin, LLP has written an extremely useful piece.
Briefly she asserts that "there are no bright lines in determining whether an unauthorized use would be considered "fair" and non-infringing or simply infringing....In determining whether the use made of a copyrighted work in any particular instance is "fair," the factors include:
1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
2. the nature of the copyrighted works.
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4 the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."
Wolff observes that the fourth factor is often given more weight than the others by the US Courts.
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