The Fair Use Doctrine

[sistermagpie]

CJ:
If she wins, sites will come 
> down (or not go up) for fear of copyright infringement. 

Magpie:
I don't see why. There was no problem until they decided to publish a 
book about the thing for money. She didn't go after the Lexicon's 
website. She already would go after something that presented the 
books for free online, though, so I don't see a big change there.

CJ:
If she loses 
> because the judge rules she didn't properly protect her 
intellectual 
> property, legal heads will become even more paranoid, and you can 
expect 
> the number of C&D letters to mushroom. Fans will be intimidated 
into 
> pulling down websites even when the law is on their side.

Magpie:
I don't think you have to protect your copyright. I believe it's 
trademark that you have to protect or lose. I'm not a lawyer either, 
but it just doesn't seem like JKR can be said to have given away 
anything by not going after a website that didn't make money. 
Especially when SVA has written e-mails to Scholastic in the past 
stating that he didn't consider he had any right to publish an 
encyclopedia and in fact he considered the Lexicon an intentionally 
deterrant to anybody doing so because that was JKR's right.

-m