Thanks again for Dylan suggestions

[David Payne]

On Wed, 6 Jul 2011 11:51:30 -0700, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> The term "fair use" is deliberately unclear in copyright law. And in this case there's money being made - hopefully. Bottom line, fair use - or any use of copyrighted material, is up to the copyright owner.

The fair use exceptions establish limitations on exclusive rights by copyright owners--exclusions established for the general public good (in other words, usage that is not up to the copyright owner). Like Bekah said, however, the law's unclear, which is why so much of fair use has been (and continues to be) established by the court (well, that plus the fact that big money's involved). 

There are clear examples of fair use; for example, a professor teaching a class on singer/songwriters may 
play Joni Mitchell in class to students for educational purposes without paying any license fees to Joni Mitchell whether
 Joni Mitchell likes it or not.

On the other hand, there's plenty of murky territory that the courts continue to clarify, like the Google books lawsuit (which, as far as I've read, managed to dodge the fair use court ruling that lots of people hoped for). Another fair use lawsuit that's pretty important: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110603/21344514552/obscureish-academic-fair-use-case-has-potential-wide-ranging-impact.shtml