Re: More on copyright

[Jeffrey Carter <jrcarter@acm.org>]

Robert Dewar wrote:
> 
> As an example, consider the company that was marketing
> copies of Titanic with the "good parts" bleeped out of
> the tape. They bought new tapes and modified them, but
> the film company went after them on the grounds that
> they were creating an unauthorized derived version. The
> case settled, and the product was off the market, so
> we don't have a judicial judgment here, but it was
> pretty clear that the company would have won.

If you sell the derived work, that is clearly a violation. But if I take
my legal copy of Titanic and create a version with Jar Jar Binks edited
out for my personal enjoyment, that's clearly fair use. If I show my
version to my friends (without charging for it), that's fair use, too.
If I give copies of my version to my friends, that's less clear, but
probably fair use. If I have millions of friends and give them copies
via the internet, things get murky. But charging for it without
permission is always a violation.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"You couldn't catch clap in a brothel, silly English K...niggets."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail