Are you thinking about reprinting this brilliant paragraph on your website? Not so fast. Section 107 of the U.S. copyright law describes the fair use doctrine, which states that for certain purposes, copyrighted works can be used without authorization. This relatively ambiguous definition, however, has left a lot of gray area about how the doctrine should be interpreted. Where exactly is the line between fair use and copyright infringement?
Fair use is not a right. Under existing copyright laws, content owners need not make it simple—or even possible—for consumers to backup or time-shift the media they own. Still, recognizing that many consumers value the ability to copy media from one device to another, some content owners have embedded into digital rights management the ability to back up protected files. iTunes, for example, allows consumers who have purchased protected songs to copy those songs over to up to five computers.
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