Copyright enforcement firm Righthaven, US, reportedly lost a lawsuit last week in a ruling that a nonprofit's reposting of an entire newspaper article was a lawful fair use. The ruling, if upheld on appeal, could possibly change the way that copyrighted newspaper articles get treated on the web.
Righthaven is seen to have garnered controversy by suing 250 different blogs and websites over newspaper copyrights. With the latest ruling, the company has lost its second case. The first finding of fair use was over a website that only quoted about 25 percent of a Las Vegas Review-Journal (R-J) story.
In general, 'fair use' is the rule that justifies partial use of a copyrighted work. Fair use allows for quotation in a book review or news report. However, in certain situations, judges have found 100 percent of a work to be fair use. In a hearing on March 18, US District Judge James Mahan found this case as one of those circumstances. He ruled that it was legal for Oregon non-profit Center for Intercultural Organizing (CIO) to post a full copy of a newspaper article from R-J on its website. The judge based his decision on several factors including that CIO serves a completely different market than the R-J.
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