Microsoft and Google Asks the FTC to review Copyright Law Applications

Children’s Ministers are faced repeatedly with questions as to what is right and fair and legal when it comes to copyright laws. I found it highly educational this morning to read how Microsoft and Google (actually the Computer and Communications Industry Association (http://www.ccianet.org/) are challenging some of the APPLICATIONS and INTERPRETATIONS of the law.

 For anyone who has heard the sports warning during broadcasts stating, “any rebroadcast or retransmission in any form” know how overbroad these “warnings” can seem. But are they legal?

The CCIA said copyright holders should let audiences know they may have a right to reproduce some of the work. They even provide examples of how it can be done, as in this warning in the John Wiley & Son’s 2007 book “Hotel California.” The warning says, “No part of this publication may be reproduced…except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act,” referring to the sections that deal with fair use and reproduction by libraries and archives.

Justin Hughes, a professor of law at Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York, said the notion of fair use is expanding in the digital age, with consumers getting used to copying CDs, for example, as a gift for somebody. A difficulty with the concept of fair use is that while the Copyright Act establishes what fair use is, the application of the rules is still somewhat subjective, said Mr. Hughes. They call for courts to consider several factors ranging from the nature of the use — such as whether it is public or private — to whether the reproduced work had any effect on the market for the original.

Check out the CCIA site for some pretty interesting interpretations of the Fair Use doctrine of the Copyright code!!!!