A little while ago, I was copying a page out of Mastering Oracle SQL to leave on someone's desk. I happened to know the topic, inline views, would get him particularly excited.
Someone wandered by and jokingly said you were cheating if you copied a book. In his mind, I presume, what I was doing was legally wrong, though not morally, and something to be winked at. Not so. "It's fair use," I explained, and commented that such small excerpts were completely legal. What a myth the copyright cartels have forced on us!
What a reassurance it was to think that Tim O'Reilly understands and respects fair use rights, and that if this really were a serious issue, he would back me up. Besides, copying that single page has a good chance of causing more purchases of the book.
Careful... that's the "pirates" sleaze-logic that completely ignores that the right to do that still belongs with the copyright holder, and if they (not you) believed it to be true, would give explicit permission to do so.Besides, copying that single page has a good chance of causing more purchases of the book.
Not to say that one page doesn't fall under the fair-use clauses of copyright... so you're probably safe on that account. But don't fall into the "I know better than the publisher about what will sell more items" arrogance. Down that way lie lawyers. {grin}
Re:down that way lie pirates!
jdavidb on 2003-02-28T15:56:37
Ah, yes; I understand. I'm just representing, I hope, what would be Tim O'Reilly's personal view of my specific action, had he been present.
I'm interested in being a law-abider, and also in having rational laws.
Re: Fair use?
jdavidboyd on 2003-02-28T18:39:32
So, please, what makes this fair use?
I have no knowledge of copyright law, but have been hearing about not being allowed to
copy a page out of a book since I was in high school.
Do you have any references as to what makes this fair use?
Please note that this reply is prompted by curiosity , and not criticism!:->
DaveRe: Fair use?
merlyn on 2003-02-28T18:54:24
"Fair use" actually has a precise legal definition, although the components are subject to judicial interpretation. See what the Copyright Office has to say.And now that I look at that, it would be hard to simply copy a page out of a technical book for your own use under that definition. So, I will now backpedal. {grin}
Re: Fair use?
jdavidb on 2003-02-28T23:26:48
such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
Well, I'd say this falls under many of those. Particularly news reporting. Mainly, I wanted the other guy in the office to know I had a book that had that information in it. I highlighted two relevant sentences. I also copied just the first page about the topic, not the whole section. There's not really much useful on that page other than, "This is possible, here's how you can --"
This is fun.
:)
