The Grumpy Editor's guide to free documentation licenses

The Grumpy Editor's guide to free documentation licenses

Posted Nov 4, 2004 8:56 UTC (Thu) by Wol (guest, #4433)
In reply to: The Grumpy Editor's guide to free documentation licenses by kimoto
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor's guide to free documentation licenses

I'll give you an example of a jurisdiction where there is no *statutory* concept of "fair use".

In practice we get away with it under common law (and bringing lawsuits is expensive - the doctrine of "loser pays" and "plaintiff pays for nuisance suits" means prosecution is unlikely).

As an example - I make a "fair use" quote. The copyright owner sues me. I offer to pay the value of the work. The owner is now in a dilemma. If he accepts my offer, he's paid hundreds of pounds of court fees and got tens of pounds in copyright fees back (I don't have to pay his costs). If he *doesn't* accept my offer, and then the judge/jury accept my offer as reasonable, he not only has to pay *his* legal costs, but *mine* *as* *well*.

Lawsuits just don't happen under those sorts of rules ...

Cheers,
Wol

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