Check out Joyce Valenza’s recent post “Fair use and transformativeness: It may shake your world” and see if it shakes up your understanding of fair use and copyright. It did mine!

“I am no longer sure that anything I learned, or anything I regularly share relating to fair use, is either helpful or relevant. As a gatekeeper, I’ve been far too conservative.”

“I learned on Friday night that the critical test for fairness in terms of educational use of media is transformative use. When a user of copyrighted materials adds value to, or repurposes materials for a use different from that for which it was originally intended, it will likely be considered transformative use; it will also likely be considered fair use. Fair use embraces the modifying of existing media content, placing it in new context.”

Also check out Ten Common Misunderstandings about Fair Use from Temple University’s Media Education Lab.

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