Fair Use by Social Media, Revisted

Today, as I write this post, I get a) forwarded email, with fulltext, and NO citations (owner / creator / distributor), b) another invitation to download for free some ebooks, and c) the question of 'Is Fair Use in Jeopardy.' As librarians are we to allowed to extract or quote (fairly) or NOT? WebProNews' extract brings to fore a lot of recent transactions and the debate is again open for us (see the extract below).


Fair Use Controversy: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Is Fair Use in Jeopardy? WebProNews,
Extract:

So the whole "what is fair use?" debate is back, as Fortune describes the business practices of Righthaven and the Las Vegas Review Journal of going after publications for violating copyright.

As the piece by John Patrick Pullen explains, the operation involves "transferring the copyright of content that has been reproduced on the Internet — either entirely or in part — from the Review-Journal to Righthaven, which then files lawsuits against the alleged infringers."

The EFF has reportedly stepped up to represent some clients the firm has gone after, while most are just settling with Righthaven, which has been seeking a maximum penalty of $150,000 plus seizure of the domain name in every case, according to the report.

The piece does appear to be a little sensational, asking questions like "Could clicking a Like button lead to a lawsuit?" and "Are the days of posting stories to Facebook, emailing articles to friends, or printing out pieces numbered?" continue reading (see also the comments)

On the same shelf:

Is there a cure for Facebook-itis? By Heather Mallick, Toronto Star -- Facebook’s purchase of tiny, sad Instagram for $1 billion reveals its desperate hunt for authenticity...