Re: Case Studies

>Alexa Jaffurs asks:
>>
>> I've been helping one of my faculty members assemble a body of
>> case histories concerning scientific misconduct. He wants to use the
>> material in his classes and make his collection available to other
>> teachers for use in their classes. If the histories are based on
>> real-life incidents, as presented in copyrighted articles and letters
>> to the editors of such publications as the New York Times or Science
>> Weekly, do we run a risk of copyright infringement by paraphrasing the
>> basic facts of the story?
>
>As a matter of copyright you are not in trouble provided that the
>use is restricted to educational use in a non-profit setting - absent
>some unusual facts this consitutes fair use. The libel issues are
>somewhat more obscure but generally one would have difficulty making
>out a libel case on these facts - this would make the discussion of
>whether some-one has been libeled libelous.

On the copyright issue, if all that is done is a retailing of the facts, a wide paraphrase of purely factual material, then it is highly unlikely that there would be copyright infringement, irrespective of the use to which the work is put -- the facts told are simply not protectible as such, as opposed to copying of the copyrighted articles in which these facts are published.

shalpern[_at_]magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Sheldon W. Halpern
Ohio State University College of Law
Phone (614) 291-7525 (voice); (614) 291-3554 (fax) Received on Thu Jan 27 1994 - 21:42:14 GMT