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HEADLINE: What are some Landmark Fair Use Court Cases?

The following are some of the most important recent court cases that have helped define fair use. The links here are to case law and judicial opinions assembled by the Stanford University Copyright and Fair Use Web site.

The source of the summary notes here is the highly recommended Timeline: A History of Copyright in the U.S., produced by the Association of Research Libraries.

 

  • PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS v. MICHIGAN DOCUMENT SERVICES, INC. 1996
    "In February 1996, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an off-campus, for-profit photocopy shop may, as a matter of fair use, make coursepacks that include substantial portions of copyright protected books and sell them to students. On April 9, 1996 the judges of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to rehear this case en banc. The effect of that vote is to vacate the previous decision from the Sixth Circuit, leaving in force a previous injunction issued by the District Court. The case was reheard June 12, 1996.

    In May 1996, an amicus brief was filed in the case on behalf of the educational community by the Attorney General of the State of Georgia, the National School Board Association, the Georgia and California School Boards Associations, and the American Association of School Administrators. ARL filed a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to express its strong support for the important basic principles expressed in the brief of these amici. The American Library Association joined ARL in filing this letter. The ARL-ALA letter calls on the court to take note of the broader issues raised in the case and the significant public interests affected. "If the public did not have the ability to exercise . . . fair use rights," the letter states, "education, scholarly research and the progress of science and the arts would be severely inhibited, and the usefulness - and inevitably the value - of the copyrighted works concerned would be substantially diminished."

  • AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION v. TEXACO INC. 1995
    " In July 1992, a U.S. District judge ruled in the seven-year old copyright case that a Texaco scientist violated the U.S. Copyright Law (Section 107) when he copied articles without providing the appropriate fee to the publishers. Texaco argued that the copying fell within fair use. The court ruled that the profit motive of the company was a relevant consideration in the analysis of the purpose of the use. They also found against Texaco in considering the amount of the work used focusing on the article as the "whole work" rather than the journal it came from. They also found that the market was affected because Texaco could have paid royalties through the     Copyright Clearance Center.

    "In 1994, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the lower court decision. In April 1995, Texaco petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. On May 15, 1995, Texaco and a steering committee representing the publishers announced that they have agreed upon terms to settle the case. Texaco, will pay a seven-figure settlement and retroactive licensing fee to the CCC. In addition, Texaco will enter into standard annual license agreements with the CCC."

  • BASIC BOOKS V. KINKO'S GRAPHICS CORPORATION, 1991
    "A Federal District Court in New York ruled that Kinko's Graphic Corporation infringed copyrights, and did not exercise fair use, when it photocopied "coursepacks" that included book chapters, and then sold them to students for classwork. The court found that most of the fair use factors worked against Kinko's in this case, especially given Kinko's profit motive in making the copies. Additionally, the court found that the classroom guidelines did not apply to Kinko's. The court did not rule that coursepacks cannot constitute fair use in other circumstances. "