A Weakened Copyright Thanks to an Old Fogel

No greater example that I can think of comes to mind when photo consultant Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua (soon to be lawyer!) writes on her blog - It’s not whether you win (8/21/08) - "In law school, one of the very first things they teach you is that the law is not even close to black and white–it’s an interpretation of meanings and previous decisions" than the latest news on the Copyright front smacked down by the judicial fiat of U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel where we copyright owners now have to

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consider "fair use" before we send a DMCA Takedown Notice to someone for stopping the infringement of our works online.

Wired reports in Judge: Copyright Owners Must Consider 'Fair Use' Before Sending Takedown Notice, 8/210/08:

"In the nation's first such ruling, a federal judge on Wednesday said copyright owners must consider "fair use" of their works before sending takedown notices to online video-sharing sites...The DMCA requires removal of material a rights holder claims is infringing its copyrights. If it isn't removed, legal liability can be placed on YouTube or other video-sharing sites."

See Carolyn Wright's post - Using the DMCA Takedown Notice to Battle Copyright Infringement - 8/1/08 , for more information on how you do that.

This judge's fiat takes the notion of the law not being black or white and makes is fuchsia!

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