Invoking IP: Fair Use Week Wrap Up

Hello dear readers!  I know that I've been delinquent in serving up delicious tidbits applying copyright laws to games.  And...I'm not going to do that today either.  I'm normally talking about how we apply copyright to games.  That includes the things that are not/or almost completely not copyrightable (game mechanics) and the things that are copyrighted (the specific expression including verbatim text and art).  But, there are some times that you can use things that are copyrighted even without permission.  That's fair use.

Well, last week was Fair Use Week.  As a quick wrap up, here are a few good pieces from the Fair Use website that are worth checking out.  If you have others, leave them in the comments section!

• A Fair Use Quiz (I got 100% right!  Also, the last question and the last two slides are good references about the issues related to the copyrightability of facts--which are treated the same as the rules systems for games).
• How fair use affects the day of a typical congressional staffer.
• The Center for Media & Social Impact's Best Practices for using various types of copyrighted works like visual arts and orphaned works.
• 
  

The kids at Fair Use Week have also given an excellent little infographic to help everyone understand why fair use is so damned important!  Here's a copy (fairly made and used!)