"Fair" Use ? Exploiting Artists.

Some words, IMHO, simply should not be used as legal terms. "Fair" for one. "Fair" is too subjective; many people understand the term differently. What seems "fair" game to a student or a scholar or a person or business entity who is very happy to redistribute other people's property without permission, may not seem at all "fair" to a creative individual whose livelihood depends on the legal licensing or sale of their work.

My friend and colleague Marilynn Byerly recommends this article on Fair Use:
https://janefriedman.com/the-fair-use-doctrine/ 

Marilynn blogs about copyright here:
http://mbyerly.blogspot.com/ 

On Facebook this week, artist Jon Paul Ferrara posted about the permissionless use of his artwork on the covers of some ebooks being sold for profit on certain retail bookselling sites.
https://www.facebook.com/jonpaulstudios?fref=photo%3E

Musicians and authors receive most of the attention when copyright infringement is discussed, although there was a memorable dust up in 2012 - 2013 when some websites claimed the right to turn "user-generated content" (ie uploaded photographs) into posters and wallpaper and postcards which the sites would sell for their own profit.  I saw my own paperback book covers offered as posters etc. I wonder whether the intent was that I should purchase it?

Quoting from TheTrichordist from 2013

"When Instagram attempted to change its terms of service that would allow the company to monetize the work of the individual without the individuals permission, consumers went ballistic. It seems that permission is not such a difficult concept to grasp when people are personally effected. This is why privacy is a much more universal issue, because everyone is effected by it....."

http://thetrichordist.com/2013/05/08/permission-privacy-and-piracy-where-creators-and-consumers-meet/

"User-generated" too often means "User-Uploaded" but not generated or owned by the site member.

Here's an excellent site that studied social media sites that strip metadata and copyright information from photographs etc.
http://www.embeddedmetadata.org/social-media-test-results.php

Bouquets for Google, in this case. Brickbats for Facebook... apparently.

The sites that remove copyright information could be a potentially serious issue from copyright holders, because these sites, in effect, make copyrighted works look like orphan works or public domain works.  Why does the law allow this? If the artist's name can --and may-- be lawfully removed from a painting, why shouldn't the author's name that the title of a book be stripped from the book?

(I am not seriously suggesting that attribution and titles should be stripped from copyrighted books. My point is that it should not be stripped from artwork.)

For authors who are self-publishing, make sure you purchase your cover art from a reputable source, and make sure you have the appropriate licensing for your anticipated print-run or distribution. If there are photographers and models involved, see if you can obtain waivers from both.

My best,
Rowena Cherry

Judge Denny Chin Was Mistaken About The Fairness Of Scanning

I had planned to blog about something else....  (How Wrong Rand Paul Is In Supporting Internet Anarchy) however, today I did a bit of pirating with the most pure of motives, and I'd like to spread the word.

Judge Denny Chin decided that Google Books and Google Book scanning is Fair Use. Now, there are four well-recognized tests for whether something is Fair Use or not, and the most important one is whether the activity causes financial loss to the copyright owner.

This morning, Google cost the publishers and authors of WORLD CIVILIZATIONS at least $124.00
(assuming I wouldn't rent it from Amazon, or buy a used copy). Actually, to digress, Amazon's price surprises me. MBS which is supposed to be a cost-effective source for students is selling new copies for $262.00.

I should add another disclaimer. Google claims that the pages are displayed on Google Books by permission of the publisher.
http://books.google.com/books?as_brr=3&as_pt=BOOKS&id=z4mr9PVsCfkC&dq=978-0-495-91300-9&q=Samauri#v=onepage&q=Samauri&f=false

Pages displayed by permission of Cengage Learning. Copyright.

I wonder whether the publisher gave permission "willingly", and whether the publisher would have been so willing if they knew how many pages Google displays as "preview".  I certainly was able to use simple search terms to enable me to do the required reading for a student's homework reading for last week, and also for this week, and next week. (Let me repeat, the student in question has a legally purchased copy of the text. I just was curious about the student's allegations about turgid prose. FWIW, and not to add insult to injury, I found the prose absolutely fascinating.)

Was Judge Denny Chin impressed by the fact that Google Books omits pages, such as 178? I wanted to know whether I could find Page 178 by other means, so I tried other search terms on Google Books, and found a portion of page 178, even though that page was not supposed to be shown at all.

I then took the keyword from what was available on 178, and the ISBN of the book, and went to Google to do a search. I will not share either the lucky keyword or the screen capture of the Google search page, but .... it took me to a .pdf  OF THE ENTIRE BOOK.

Which entire book, I was able to download (in the pure and clean-handed spirit of scholarly inquiry) from that Google Search page without any hindrance or warning that what I was doing was in any way evil and immoral.

This situation is wrong. It should not happen. Judge Denny Chin should not have allowed it to happen. I have informed Authors' Guild, and I hope that other students and copyright activists will take expensive books that they have already purchased legally, and test whether they are able to illegally download copies using Google Books and Google Search.... and help to make a bit of a stink about what it happening to copyright, and how unfair "Fair Use" abuse can be.

All the best,
Rowena Cherry
SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/