Fair Dealing / Fair Use

Profesor Jamar's response, while somewhat illuminating, doesn't clarify for me the status of "fair use" in the USA. Yes, it is part of the (C) statute. But is it a user right, or a statutory defence? Or perhaps what Jamar is saying is that there is no real distinction between the two? Cheers,
Bernard Katz, former head, Special Collections and Library Development

                            McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph     author, descriptive bibliog. of L.M. Montgomery's books (in progress)     and former chair, Ontario Library Association Copyright Task Force

On Tue, 7 Feb 2006, Steven Jamar wrote:

> Fair use in the US is a matter of statutory law, just like the
> particular exceptions. It differs insofar as it is both general and
> requires judgment in its application of a different order than most of
> the more particularized exceptions.
>
> On 2/7/06, Bernard Katz <bkatz[_at_]uoguelph.ca> wrote:
>> I believe that the "technical shift of burden" as Steven Jamar called it
>> is more than a mere technicality. In Canada, our "fair dealing" clause
>> (not exactly the same as "fair use" in the USA, but close, especially
>> after the CCH vs. Law Society of Upper Canada unanimous decision by the
>> Supremne Court of Canada in 2004) is a statutory defense - as I under-
>> stand it. I have been told that the same is technically true of "fair
>> use" in the USA. So although one may anticipate that fair dealing or fair
>> use will be applicable and and procede with one's action, these are not
>> the same as the "exceptions" granted to libraries, archives and museums,
>> for example, in the Canadian Act which have explicit rights to do some
>> well-defined things.
>> Cheers,
>> Bernard Katz, former head, Special Collections and Library Development
>> McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph
>> author, descriptive bibliog. of L.M. Montgomery's books (in progress)
>> and former chair, Ontario Library Association Copyright Task Force
> --
> Prof. Steven Jamar
> Howard University School of Law
Received on Wed Feb 08 2006 - 23:05:01 GMT