Re: Fair use defined (was: Re: Stallman Admits to Copyright Infringement)

[tb@MIT.EDU (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)]

Lindsay Haisley <fmouse@fmp.com> writes:

> Thus spake Thomas Bushnell, BSG on Sun, May 21, 2000 at 11:24:13PM CDT
> > 
> > One interesting precedent I know of.  First, there is precedent that
> > you may make a tape recording of a musical album you own, for personal
> > purposes including reducing wear and tear on the album, more
> > convenient or portable format, and so forth.  I assumes that the
> > freedom to make a personal cassette tape of a vinyl album would extend
> > to making a personal MP3 of a CD.  Personal in the precedent excludes
> > making copies for other people.
> 
> This is called 'fair use'.  I've heard that the DMCA has arguably done away
> with this interpretation of fair use.  Is this so?

No, the DMCA explicitly does not remove any fair uses from being fair
use.  In some areas it extends the domain of legal permissionless
copying (for web caches, for example).  In other areas, it prohibits
the defeating of a copy protection scheme, even if you are defeating
it for a legitimate purpose.

Thomas