Article Regarding Fair Use of Copyrighted Images Found on the Internet

[RandyRFJP]

A colleague of mine sent me the link below which I found quite interesting. It is about a US Court decision regarding fair use of images posted on the internet.

https://petapixel.com/2018/07/02/cou...t-is-fair-use/

[DrPsyche]

I also like the term "transformative work" when you change the image to the extent that it doesn't resemble the origin. But anyway, no wonder the use of copyrighted images has been brought into public. Though still, not many people know that there's an option to take Labeled for reuse images (in the image search option in Google). If interested, check Onehourprofessor http://www.onehourprofessor.com/what...or-reuse-mean/article.

[Donald]

We need a test case in every country. Certainly haven't heard anything about 'fair use' in either Scots or English law.

[Manfred M]

1. Fair Use is a USA legal term and is not used in other countries. The closest we have in Canadian copyright law is the term "fair dealing", which I understand is a lot broader than the USA "fair use".

2. The court ruling was made by a lower court and as a couple of legal authorities mention in the PetaPixel article, they suspect there are strong grounds that the judgement will be overturned on appeal. Unless the ruling is upheld by a higher court, it is not going to become a legal precedent and therefore is a pretty weak defense.

3. The author of the "onehourprofessor.com" article does not suggest that he is a lawyer, so I would take everything he has written with that in mind.

4. My understanding is that a person needs the permission of the copyright owner (assuming that the work is in copyright) to make a "derivative work". Once that new work has been created, the creator, not the original copyright owner, owns the copyright on the work BUT there are exceptions.

5. I'm not a lawyer and my one law course (which I had to take and pass to receive my P.Eng certification) and many years of working with lawyers (including specialists in Intellectual Property) suggest that one needs to consult a lawyer on matters like this. In Common Law countries (i.e. those countries whose legal system is based on the English legal system, which generally means all former colonies), court decisions continuously evolve the laws over and above any legislative or regulatory changes).