In a questionable yet important decision on Fair Use, Federal Judge Danny Chin determined that Google's Book Digitization Project falls under Fair Use.
In a 30-page decision (.pdf) Judge Denny Chin of New York ruled that Google’s move to digitize millions of university and commercially available books is on its face a violation of the owners’ copyrights. But Google’s limited use of the work makes the scanning “fair use” under copyright law, Chin ruled. Google’s Book-Scanning Is Fair Use, Judge Rules in Landmark Copyright Case
Seeming to follow on the heels of that news is the British Library's initiative to digitize Spare Rib, an important UK feminist magazine of the '70s and '80s. In its outreach to authors who contributed to the landmark publication, the British Library asks that authors sign over their copyrights with a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0. licence.
"If this project goes ahead, anyone with misogynist, anti-feminist and/or anti-lesbian attitudes will be able to take any and all of the letters, articles, poems, photographs, cartoons and other illustrations that feminists contributed to Spare Rib and twist and misuse them in ways that suit their own agenda. The original authors would not be able to do much, if anything, about it." Beware the Spare Rib Digitisation Project
British Library doesn't offer adequate solutions for writers
Once again, artists are asked to shoulder the burden of "cooperation" in order to make culture "free". We understand the complexities of adapting traditional publishing models for internet use, but content providers need to understand that the proper tools do not exist to protect the rights of content creators except under current copyright laws. Creative Commons was not created with artists' rights in mind. Its sole purpose was to attempt to solve problems for publishers.
Let's work for better solutions
"…no one should be made to feel pressured into licensing their work in perpetuity for no return." Beware the Spare Rib Digitisation Project
