Re: Re: fees for fair use in books

Before we let go of this question, I do hear what has been said about the ambiguity about "fair use," particularly in a commercial context but have been mulling the issue over for a few days.

Our Canadian copyright law does not say, in its exemptions section, "Fair dealing for the purpose of research... except if that research has a commercial aspect." Nor does it say, "Fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review... except if that criticism or review is motivated by personal gain."

The newspaper and magazine art reviewers working for publishers who make money selling newspapers and magazines are still doing criticism. Authors who are writing critically or thematically about a particular artist or a particular type of art are doing research that expands our understanding and appreciation of the art they discuss. Both are specifically exempted from the need to seek and pay for permissions. This makes good sense and most museums and galleries are generally happy to provide images for critical review; reviews attract audiences or at least attention which helps museums to be the public institutions they intend to be... and research similarly substantiates the collection of particular art works.

So it seems to me what we have here is ignorance of the law being elevated to 'ambiguity in the law' because there is a possibility of money circulating in a world (the artworld, museums, galleries, artists) where money is impossibly hard to come by... and believe me, I know and am sympathetic...

But I put it to you that an opportunity to make a little money is no justification for promoting ignorance. It is up to those who are in positions of responsibility for copyright, permissions, accessing image archives, etc.to be clear about these things... when permission is requested and it is clear that the use is academic, critical, evaluative, research-oreinted or for criticism, the requester should be told that permission is not necessary; what IS necessary, in Canada, is a proper crediting of the image source and the work and that should be provided without fee... And of course, by all means, if there is a charge for accessing an image, digging it out of the archive and emailing it, then that should be stated as such, but not as a "permission."

I believe this would go some way towards improving both public understanding of, and faith in, copyright.

Robert Labossiere, MFA, LLB
Toronto
----- Original Message -----
From: "S. Martin Keleti" <keleti[_at_]manifesto.com> To: "CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property" <CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org>
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 6:20 PM
Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: fees for fair use in books

> At 12:55 PM 7/29/2005, "Robert Labossiere"
> <rlabossiere[_at_]cdnfilmcentre.com> wrote:
> >Thank you everyone for your very helpful comments. "Exploit for money" is
> >an oxymoron, any publisher will tell you:)
>
> "Oxymoron" or "redundancy"? It seems more like saying the same thing
> twice. ;-)
>
>
>
> S. Martin Keleti
> Cohen and Cohen
> 740 North La Brea Avenue
> Los Angeles, CA 90038-3339
> 323.938.5000
> 323.936.6354 fax
>
>
>
> #############################################################
> This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to
> the mailing list <CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org>.
> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <CNI-COPYRIGHT-off[_at_]cni.org>
> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <CNI-COPYRIGHT-digest[_at_]cni.org>
> To switch to the INDEX mode, E-mail to <CNI-COPYRIGHT-index[_at_]cni.org>
> To postpone your subscription, E-mail to <CNI-COPYRIGHT-null[_at_]cni.org>
> Send administrative queries to <CNI-COPYRIGHT-request[_at_]cni.org>
>
> Visit the CNI-COPYRIGHT e-mail list archive at
<https://mail2.cni.org/Lists/CNI-COPYRIGHT/>.
>
Received on Wed Aug 03 2005 - 00:10:30 GMT