Fair Game

With the Grokster case before the Supreme Court (see Cooler's links to a couple of stories here), I'm curious to see how many of the stories mention the phrase 'fair use.' I'm also curious to see how much press this new bill from Rick Boucher gets while it's going on. Boucher has been trying to codify fair use into law for a good couple of years now, making him one of the key people I would want to talk to if I ever get around to writing that damn book.

In the Grokster context, Boucher is talking about "substantial noninfringing uses," which is one of the ways fair use would apply to file-sharing networks, but it looks like part of that bigger picture. I think he gets that neither side is wholly right here -- and the fanatical fringes of those sides make that point for me via David Pogue this week, along with the classically ludicrous "the record companies make a lot of money, so it's not stealing" argument -- which is why I've come to appreciate the bits and pieces of news I hear about his efforts.

A representative from the MPAA is quoted in the Boucher article as saying that allowing some copying via the fair use provision is "a pretty short step to wanton piracy," but that totally misses the point that this is exactly why Boucher wants a legal definition. There isn't one today, and it creates a certain gray area in the debate.