[FC-discuss] UK Fair Use?

[MJ Ray]

Rob Myers <rob at robmyers.org> wrote:
> separate Creative Commons licenses for England & Wales and for Scotland 
> for example. [...]

By the way, I think the Scotland licence would be valid enough for
most uses in England and it is written in far simpler language.  The
England and Wales licence was confusing and included the
supertrademark bug the last I saw.

Timothy Cowlishaw <timcowlishaw at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm afraid it's not quite - Fair dealing is much more limited than US  
> fair use, and  AFAIK basically only amounts to a very limited set of  
> exceptions and limitations allowing the copying of a limited portion  
> of a work (i forget the precise wording of this) for educational use  
> (but organised education, rather than private study). [...]

I think you're also allowed private study and reporting of current
affairs, but I don't know the case law on private study.  Of course,
all the uncertainty about case law is quite a "Chilling Effect" - if
you are challenged, you need to be *really* sure of your ground before
you refuse the request of a copyright holder.

Nelson Pavlosky <nelson at freeculture.org> wrote:
> Ringo, why don't you post this document to the a wiki somewhere, e.g. 
> <http://wiki.freeculture.org>

Wouldn't that put it under FDL, so if it was actually edited on the
wiki by multiple people, it would need copyright releases from each
author or inclusion of a copy of the FDL when sending it to the BBC?
I think that would make free culture look rather silly to the BBC:
"here's a letter and here's a licence that's longer than the letter".

Even if that can be avoided, I feel it's still useful to post at least
one draft to the list and to invite comment here, so people without
MVS or a compatible browser can be involved.

Regards,
-- 
MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
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