My daughter (15) was calling her least favorite classmates "pick me girls" for years before I realized it had something to do with Gray's Anatomy—which she has never seen. Culture travels and morphs in such interesting ways! Happy #fairusefriday, y'all!
A collage of legal figures discussing copyright principles, featuring key cases and arguments regarding originality and non-infringing expressions.
Professor Lee has a link and abstract for the article here, as well as a very nice graphic showing his argument's deep foundations in case law. chatgptiseatingtheworld.com/2026/03/06/...
the creation of new, non-infringing works. But that's just policy talk. Professor Lee's article is important because it goes beyond policy to explain why this argument is unconstitutional. It's a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of the AI-fair use debate.
"Market dilution" is the argument that the impact of competition by new, non-infringing works should count against fair use as a "market effect" under the fourth fair use factor. It's an absurd theory that flies in the face of copyright's actual purpose which is to promote
#Fairusefriday is a good day for Prof. Ed Lee's paper, Copyright Dilution Under Constitutional Scrutiny, to be officially published in its final form. It's a vital contribution, as theories of "market dilution" continue to be proffered against AI training as a fair use.
Agreed. Technology may ease the way to creating art or expressing ideas, but deciding what to create, what to say, and (among all the options available to you with whatever tech you have) how to say it, is still the crucial step that is, IMO, irreducibly human.
Not sure it it's exactly the same as social media, but interesting thread on the moral panic about kids becoming addicted to books a century ago
ICYMI: Exeuctive Director @bb.usefairuse.com authored a blog for @harvardlibrary.bsky.social's Fair Use Week series.
During #FairUseWeek ARL & @recreatecoalition.bsky.social teamed up to host a panel of legal & policy experts from libraries & civil society. Read our blog post by @katherinejk.bsky.social: www.arl.org/blog/celebra...
Panelists shown, L to R: David Hansen, @bb.usefairuse.com, Betsy Rosenblatt
Before Fair Use Week comes to a close (sigh!), I want to highlight another excellent fair use blog post, by Wayne Brough from Re:Create member @rstreet.bsky.social. Wayne is an economist by training, and his take on the doctrine through that lens is crisp and clear: www.rstreet.org/commentary/...
Happy Fair Use Friday during #fairuseweek! We’ve celebrated how fair use is essential to innovation & creativity, giving America a competitive edge. Check out our new one-pager explaining what fair use is, how we use it daily, and its impact on U.S. innovation! recreatecoalition.org/infographic/...
My own guest post for Harvard, focusing on the false flag of “transparency” in AI regulation, should go live later today—stay tuned!!
And yesterday saw a new post by @Davehansen.bsky.social on the third fair use factor (the amount used), which non-lawyers often treat as the most important (and assume less is always more) but which judges treat as secondary (and entire works can be fine). sites.harvard.edu/fair-use-we...
Katherine's essay highlights some of the insights on fair use and accessibility that we were able to develop and publish in a white paper, informed by 2 days of discussion and deliberation with an esteemed panel of experts. Read the full paper here: www.arl.org/wp-content/...
Katherine's essay highlights how fair use, together with specific accessibility provisions, enable libraries to take bold steps in support of accessibility, perhaps bolder than most folks realize: sites.harvard.edu/fair-use-we...
First up is Katherine Klosek on fair use and accessibility. This one is near to my heart, as I'm very proud to have done some work with @ARL.org and the @UVALibrary.bsky.social to explore ways libraries could better serve folks who need accessible materials for research and learning.
I had to go largely offline for the last few days to travel up to DC and back for our big fair use panel on the Hill, so I'm catching up today on some of the Fair Use Week fun that I've missed! Two new blog posts dropped on the Harvard Fair Use Week landing page:
While not universally true, it is generally true that the tighter the control on production & distribution you place on an intellectual work, the less likely it will survive into posterity.
If you want something to last, make it good, make lots of it, and make it easy for others to make more of it.
Nobody tell Judge Alsup—this long lost bit of film history only exists today because of unauthorized copying!
Prof Sprigman won't be able to join us due to the extreme weather in NYC, but stay tuned. We'll find a way to bring him into the copyright policy conversation another time, and soon, I hope!
Here's the registration/event info page - it's not too late to sign up. We look forward to seeing you there. www.arl.org/event/fair-...
Today's the day! Our Capitol Hill briefing for Fair Use Week is at 11:30am in the Russell Senate Office Building. So excited to bring this group of experts to DC to help share the good news about fair use and balanced copyright!*
Gov. Abigail Spanberger: "The scale of the corruption is unprecedented. There's the cover up of the Epstein files, the crypto scams, cozying up to foreign princes for airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms, putting his name and face on buildings all over our nation's capital."
Yeah, it'd be a real shame if a culture of corruption were to take root in the USA.... Ahem.
And the kick off blog post is a hot one, from Harvard's own Kyle Courtney, on the extraordinary good work that fair use has to do when we are in extraordinary times: sites.harvard.edu/fair-use-we...
The Harvard Library, a long-time co-sponsor of the week, alongside ARL, will be hosting its annual parade of fair use week blog posts, including one by your humble narrator later this week. Find those here: sites.harvard.edu/fair-use-we...
**Minus Prof. Sprigman, unfortunately - we just found out his flights are a total mess b/c of the snow and he's not going to be able to make it down to DC in time. BOO! But we've got a bunch of heavy hitters here and we're so excited to chat with you soon!
We're excited to bring a diverse group of fair use experts to brief Congressional staff and others on the state of play in fair use and AI, and how these questions can resonate beyond the AI realm. Learn more and RSVP here: www.arl.org/event/fair-...
Fair Use Week is here!! This week we are so excited to celebrate with our friends @arlpolicy and many more. Check out ARL's kick off blog post for a rundown of some key events and online resources: www.arl.org/blog/partic...
Chris is stuck abroad thanks to the snowstorm, but the rest of us are still gathering on Wednesday at the Russell Senate Office Building to talk fair use and AI and anything else y'all want to talk about! Hope to see you there!
