Re: Article on Protection of History

On 98-04-24, John J. Shaeffer <shaeffer[_at_]oslaw.com> wrote:
>
> It is my contention that courts should view the expression of history
> more as literature rather than as science

I find this to be an interesting discussion thread on copyright law and historical idea/expression.

To mention a couple of possibly relevant articles (as was requested earlier): Diane Conley, "Author, User, Scholar, Thief: Fair Use and Unpublished Works," 9 CARDOZO ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT LJ, 15,21 (1990). She provides analysis showing how, in some opinions regarding use of unpublished works in nonfiction, courts have perceived biographers and historians as "scavengers" who seem to be ranked hierarchically lower on the creative totem pole than authors of fiction and poetry. Conley feels the uses of texts made by biographers and historians in these cases have been "insufficiently tolerated" by the courts, and that has translated into decisions weighing against them. Also (please excuse the personal plug) I have written about my (nonlawyer's) related views in an article with an extended historical hypothetical, in "The Tell-Tale 'Heart'": Determining 'Fair Use of Unpublished Texts," LAW AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS, 55, no. 2 (Spring 1992).

Karen Burke LeFevre
Assoc. Prof. of Rhetoric
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
LEFEVK[_at_]rpi.edu Received on Sat Apr 25 1998 - 15:20:10 GMT