Duncan Frissell points to an interesting controversy:
Your reposting of the Law of Fisking coincided with an actual threat to sue for copyright infringement in a Fisking situation involving one of your fellow California profs from CSU Long Beach. Mike Adams — a criminal justice prof from North Carolina and a conservative columnist — has been going back and forth with a guy at CSULB named Clifton Snider.
In the first post, Adams extensively quotes research paper guidelines from Snider’s composition class . . . .
In the second post, Snider sends Adams a demand letter as follows:
. . . Dear Mike S. Adams,
On your web site you are using my copyrighted material from my web site (and misrepresenting it) without my permission. The material is meant for my professional work only. Stop using it now.
Thank you.
Clifton Snider, Ph.D.
Then Adams follows up . . . .
I’m pretty sure that Adams’ actions in quoting Snider’s post are solidly fair use: He’s quoting material in order to criticize it, and he’s doing it in a way that has no effect on the market value of Snider’s Web site (which is nil). And though Adams is using a good deal of Snider’s text, such use is necessary in order to make Adams’ critical point.
Adams’ actions in quoting Snider’s e-mail are a little closer to the line; the unpublished nature of Snider’s e-mail (unpublished, that is, by Snider) cuts against fair use. Nonetheless, on balance I think the critical (as well as news reporting) nature of Adams’ use, and the shortness of Snider’s unpublished e-mail, cut in favor of fair use as well.
In any event, from what I see on Adams’ site, Snider has no case, and Adams is entirely within his rights in ignoring Snider’s demands.
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