They can't take away your fair use rights, but if you do not
qualify for fair use, the copyright owner decides what conditions you must meet.
That said, there is likely an argument
for fair use of the material in the patent.
Images from the Clyfford Still Museum website and collections may be used without prior permission for limited scholarly, non-commercial, and personal use only or
for fair use as defined in the U.S. copyright laws (see below for more information on these usage definitions).
US copyright law has an
exception for fair use; small portions of a copyrighted work may be used without permission, license, or royalties if they are used for educational or demonstrative purposes.
If you're thinking of doing remixes with your kids, I've collected a bunch of good
resources for fair use over on my Best Education Parodies of 2012 film festival, so I'll skip that angle and just focus on a few additional fun links here.
That's a parody, but it probably wouldn't qualify
for fair use because (a) the parody isn't very strong or artistic; (b) there isn't much «transformation» of the underlying copyrighted work; (c) a significant portion of the copyrighted work is being used; and (d) it could potentially damage the value of the copyrighted work (particularly if my video goes viral).
I think I've written before that Prince's work, and his first - round defense, relied very heavily on Koons's winning argument that an artist's transformations of size, scale, material, and context were
sufficient for fair use.
Basically, Prince, his new lawyers, and Larry Gagosian argue that Judge Batts wrongly applied the prevailing legal
standards for fair use, especially the most recent, relevant case which had been before the same court, Blanch v. Koons.
Photographer Art Rogers brought a lawsuit against Jeff Koons for copyright infringement in 1989 (in October 2006, Koons
won for fair use); in 2000 Hirst was sued for breach of copyright over his sculpture Hymn despite the fact that he transformed the subject; and in 2008 photojournalist Patrick Cariou sued artist Richard Prince, Gagosian Gallery and Rizzoli books for copyright infringement.
Otherwise, US copyright law provides an
exemption for fair use, allowing portions of copyrighted works to be incorporated into original works for demonstrative or educational purposes.
While the author or assignee might hold a copyright, I would imagine there would be very little
protection for fair use (which would mean almost any use).
Kirkman writes, «Predictably, the witnesses represented opposite ends of the spectrum in their viewpoints on the appropriate scope and public policy
justifications for fair use under the copyright law.»
EFF encourages the public to speak out
for fair use rights by participating in the week - long campaign led by 321 Studios, makers of the popular DVD backup software recently enjoined by a California district court.
And while Oracle is hitting hard on the four legal
measures for fair use, its lawyers and witnesses are also working to portray Oracle as a defender of free and open source software.
Personally, I suppose I fall on the side of Let's Plays having a good
case for a fair use defense and that a lot of factors considered can be argued in favor of LPs.
However, on the other hand, the argument could be made that parodies in the adult context would qualify
for a fair use defense, as with other parodies.
Images from the Clyfford Still Museum website may be used for limited non-commercial, educational, and personal use only or
for fair use as defined in the U.S. copyright laws.
The Dewey B Strategic blog provides an excellent summary of the case, A
Victory for Fair Use: Online Publication of Attorney Filings OK, Copyright Suit Against Lexis and Westlaw Dismissed.
If you are worried about things like decompiling, then copyright by itself is unlikely to help you (due to
exceptions for fair use / fair dealing: see, e.g., Sega Enterprises Ltd v Accolade Inc (1992) 977 F. 2d 1510) and so you would need to obtain the customer's agreement to a licence including a contractual promise not to decompile / etc.
One could see it from the very first booth no matter which way one entered,
for the fair uses that space not for more dealers, but for more room for their art.
Is there any chance that this can be over-ridden as being
for fair use, or if not, can we quickly submit the recording to a body that will offer a temporary licence just for the day?
My best (uneducated) guess would be no; even if this is a generally prohibited activity, one would likely have a strong case
for fair use.
One, Gertner apparently solicited Neeson to make his best case
for fair use, but the defense was presented in such a broad manner that it would have excused all file sharing.