Commercial Fair Use, Not An Oxymoron

Doc asks whether those acting in some kind of commercial capacity (he uses the example of commercial blogs) are carved out of the fair use doctrine just because someone says so (see Sec. 4a). Like just about all of Doc's questions, this is an interesting one on several fronts. While the commercial nature or purpose of a use is bound to be considered by a court deciding the issue, it's not fatal to a fair use finding. See, e.g., A Fair User's Manual and Summaries of Fair Use Cases. Perhaps more interestingly, can a Web site's non click-through terms of use enforceably restrict application of the fair use doctrine? I'm skeptical, but would enjoy hearing what others have to say about it.

By the way, I just noticed LexBlog is a sponsor of the Stanford University Libraries' Copyright and Fair Use site. Well done, Kevin!

BMI Podcasting And Licensing Podcasters

See today's press release, BMI Launches New Songwriter/Artist Podcast; Licenses Podcasters in Nationwide Initiative: "BMI's licensing website has been expanded to provide a clear path for podcasters to get more information on licensing music for their programs and to obtain BMI licenses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." More at BMI and Podcasting. The new BMI podcast is here (feed).

Star Wars Trilogy: The Mother's Day Edition

• The May 9th Time Magazine


• Via Boing Boing: a side by side comparison of Lucasfilm's original cease and desist letter regarding the l33t subtitled Revenge of the Sith trailer, and the same letter, itself l33t rendered. (It's good to make a mother laugh that hard.)


• Also via Boing Boing: the Vader Force Sprinkler. (Anyone who's lived in California long enough will be unsurprised to learn green lawns and the Dark Side go hand in hand.)


• Bonus links: the Guardian says "sextology" is not a real word, but that's not slowing it down too badly.

Keyword Ads And Those Pesky French

In this month's California Lawyer, Googled: "[E]ven if American courts unanimously line up behind Google, that doesn't necessarily resolve the conflict."

Children Are Mesmerizing, And Change Absolutely Everything

Congratulations to the Haughey family!

Bonus link: Jeneane on boy children.