> this turned out to be a much bigger issue than i thought!
You raise some interesting points, and you get to the point of
the ambiguity of the law.
Do have a look at the Cornell URL I cited. Cornell has a great
center of constitutional law, and its sections on fair use and
copyright are second to none.
> I first considered taking one of my three copies of nine
>stories and cutting
> out my four stories and making it into a little booklet, as to
>benefit the
> author and not be stealing at the same time. But then i ruled this out,
> deciding that I like all of my books intact and wouldn't ruin
>them for such a
> small reason as one little english project grade. Anyway, I
>ended up going
> to Staples and copying 68 pages of Salinger's work.
Regardless of any of this, I suspect that an attorney would do
the math and find that 68 pages out of this not-so-large book is
a big slice of the total work; I don't think I would be out of
line in suggesting that this extraction is beyond the limit of
"fair use" by any definition.
> I guess this is a lot better than what most other kids did,
>because at least
> I have the book, in fact more than one, so I benefited the author....
Good for you (seriously), but the next step would be to show the
others what the high road is, so to speak, you know what I mean?
> What we should do is take books out of the library
> so that at least it's legal, but she copies a story and hands
>out on to each
> person in my roughly 20-person class about once a week.
Depending on the size of the source for the story, this could be
legitimate; see that copyright law I cited in yesterday's mail.
There are several conditions you have to meet in order for it to
be considered legal. Just copying is not, on the face of it,
illegal. Usage and context matter.
> To tell you the
> truth, I don't think in any english class I've been in we've
>been handed out
> a published anthology of short stories just to read one story.
> In any sense, it happens all the time.
Sure -- one story copied out of a large book can be considered
"fair use"; on the other hand, one story copied out of
Hemingway's "Three Stories and Ten Poems" would be terribly
infringing. You'd be lifting 1/3rd of the prose, which pretty
reasonably violates Hemingway's rights, especially since the
work is readily available in other books.
But in general, one story doesn't merit buying a book. However,
you suggested doing 5 of the 9 stories; that ratio suggests that
you're rather taking a lot of Salinger's work and should do the
right thing by buying his book.
> For my OTHER english class (unusual
> for a junior in high school right?)
Wow, yes, that is pretty impressive.
> While I have never heard of a school purchasing
> 30 or so copies of a poetry book when a teacher intents to
>assign one poem,
> this is the same as "stealing" from short story writers.
Well, no -- again, read the citation I sent out from Cornell.
One poem from a book of poetry might well be legitimate. (OK,
"The Waste Land" might not be fair use, but if something is
perhaps 10% or less of the total, it's probably an OK case in
which to invoke "fair use." I grabbed the figure "10%" out of
the air.) Read the Cornell citation again to see what the legal
experts say....
> However uptight high school teachers are about plagiorism,
>they seem to be
> okay with taking away from writers themselves. Anyway, this is
>interesting to
> think about- thanks to whoever brought up the point of it
>being illegal, and
> I'm definitely going to talk to my teacher tomorrow.
This is a good point. But be sure to get the Cornell page too.
The teacher will be impressed by your thoroughness.... See:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
Good luck, and remember that "fair use" may be applicable if you
are using only a small percentage of the published work.
--tim o'connor
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Received on Mon Mar 24 21:51:49 2003
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