[ale] Fair Use question

[Steve Litt]

On Sun, 2022-10-09 at 14:19 -0400, David Jackson via Ale wrote:
> I'm taking a class at church that is using a $15 textbook.  There's also a
> $15 workbook that the teacher is making xerox copies of the required pages
> for each lesson for our classroom discussion.  I bought another copy from
> the publishers that gives a copy of the text, workbook, and a year's online
> access to both and also to educational movies for each lesson.

As I answer these questions, please keep in mind I'm not a lawyer and my opinions
are not legal advice.

> 
> 1. Is it Fair Use to the teacher to make xerox copies of the workbook each
> week?

If you already paid for the book, I don't see why the teacher would bother. 

If you're making the copies to avoid paying for a $15.00 book, in my opinion that
makes you both a criminal and an incredible cheapskate. I publish eBooks in the
ballpark of $15.00 an hour, and that's one of the ways I finance my life. If
somebody photocopies significant parts of my copyrighted and registered work, I
could hit them up for $10K and stand an excellent chance of prevailing. Photocopying
a $15.00 book is taking food out of the mouth of the author.

> 
> 2. Is it Fair Use for me to make weekly PDFs of the online content if only
> for my own use?  

Not fair use, but who's going to know or care?

> How about for sharing with other class members?

That's a horse of a different color. Now you're not only committing a personal
copyright violation, but you're the head of a copyright violation enterprise, and
you're spreading the word. Expect a letter demanding money. Read up on the rights
granted by copyright and copyright registration. You'd be playing with fire doing
this.

> 
> 3. Is it Fair Use for me to make copies of the movies for a year?  What
> about keeping copies beyond the year?

Not fair use. If you don't publicize the fact that you're doing this, and you never
give copies to others or upload the movies, who's going to know?

> 
> 
> Okay, this is really small potatoes here I know, but basically the teacher
> called me a criminal, I thought she was wrong, and after a little googling,
> now I'm not sure.  So are any of us in this class breaking the Fair Use
> clause in this class?

Everyone, don't answer the preceding question. You'd be incriminating yourself.

Fair use means using snippets for comedy and criticism and the like, not to compete
with the original work.

As a professional author I'm quite sensitive about this, and I believe the law is on
my side.

SteveT