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This case presents the issue of whether a biographer (Hamilton) of a renowned author (Salinger) made “fair use” of his subject’s unpublished letters. The District Court granted a temporary restraining order in favor of Salinger but subsequently issued an opinion denying a preliminary injunction. 650 F. Supp. 413. (1986). In the District Court’s view, the extent of copying of expressive material entitled to copyright protection was minimal and that such use as Hamilton had made was “fair use” within the meaning of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 107 (1982). The Circuit Court reversed and remanded the lower court decision, determining that on balance, the claim of fair use as to Salinger’s unpublished letters failed.

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The NRA sent short letters to its members urging opposition to two gun control bills pending before the Ohio legislature. Attached to each newsletter was a three-page listing of Ohio state legislators. HCF sent out a newsletter supporting the same House bill the NRA opposed. Pages eight and nine of the newsletter contain a two-page list of Ohio representatives, which HCF photocopied from one of the NRA mailings. The NRA filed a complaint alleging copyright infringement of the compilation of information concerning the members of the Ohio legislature. The District Court ruled that the NRA could not copyright the three-page list of Ohio legislators at issue. The Circuit Court affirmed, holding that HCF had made fair use of the list under the copyright statutes and therefore could not be held liable.

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In this case, Defendant was preparing a series of essays in a book, and requested permission to quote extensively from interviews in Plaintiff’s book. Despite the denial of permission, Defendant included numerous verbatim quotations in his book. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals was asked to decide whether the District Court properly granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant on the basis of fair use in an action for copyright infringement. The Second Circuit concluded from their evaluation of the factors that the fair use defense was properly sustained as a matter of law. They affirmed the District Court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant.

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Plaintiff sued defendant and the Gagosian Gallery, alleging that defendant’s series of paintings and collages infringed on plaintiff’s registered copyrights in certain photographs from a book of classical portraits and landscape photographs that plaintiff took while living among Rastafarians in Jamaica. The district court concluded that, in order for defendant to use a fair use defense, defendant’s work must comment on plaintiff, on plaintiff’s photographs, or on aspects of popular culture closely associated with plaintiff or the photographs. The court concluded that the district court applied the incorrect standard to determine whether defendant’s artworks made fair use of plaintiff’s copyrighted photographs; that all but five of defendant’s works did make fair use of the photographs; and with regard to the remaining five artworks at issue, the court remanded to the district court to consider whether defendant was entitled to a fair use defense. Accordingly, the court reversed in part, vacated in part, and remanded. View “Cariou v. Prince” on Justia Law

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Marcus, a public school teacher was the owner of a registered copyright to a booklet on cake decorating. The defendant, also a public school teacher, incorporated a substantial portion of the copyrighted work into a booklet which she prepared for use in her classes. Both parties moved the District Court for summary judgment. The District Court denied both motions and dismissed the action on the merits on the ground that defendant’s copying of plaintiff’s material for nonprofit educational purposes constituted fair use. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the decision.

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Los Angeles News Service (“LANS”) recorded newsworthy events on videotape and licensed television stations and networks to use all or segments of the unedited (“raw”) footage in edited broadcast news stories. Audio Video Reporting Services (“AVRS”) made video recordings of these news programs, which included portions of LANS’s footage, and marketed the recordings. LANS sued, claiming copyright infringement. The District Court entered judgment for LANS on the copyright infringement claims. The Court of Appeals affirmed. Because AVRS sold their clips it negated their fair use defense.

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The plaintiff, a professional photographer, placed some of his images on his Web site, as well as on other web sites with which he had a license agreement. Arriba Soft operated an Internet search engine that displayed results in the form of small pictures (“thumbnails”). When Kelly discovered that his photographs were part of Arriba’s search engine database, he brought a claim against Arriba for copyright infringement. The District Court found that Kelly had established a prima facie case of copyright infringement based on Arriba’s unauthorized reproduction and display of Kelly’s works, but that this reproduction and display constituted a non-infringing “fair use” under Section 107 of the Copyright Act. Kelly appealed that decision, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed in part and reversed in part. The creation and use of the thumbnails in the search engine was a fair use. However, it held that the District Court should not have decided whether the display of the larger image was a violation of Kelly’s exclusive right to publicly display his works. Thus, the case was remanded for further proceedings.

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On appeal, the Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction issued by the Federal District Court finding that the sharing of copyrighted files was not fair use and was not within other exemptions of copyright infringement created by the Audio Home Recording Act or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

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Copyrighted images used in book were fair use under 17 U.S.C. § 107. The case balances a number of factors, including the purpose of the use of the copyrighted work, how it is presented (reduced size photos), and the market harm to other uses of the work.

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