LOTG 009: Still Not All’s Fair in Love and Copyright – A Fair Use Listener Mailathon

Summary: Is this fanfic fair use? I. Welcome to Part II of our Fair Use Episode series. Today we use last week’s groundwork and tackle two pieces of geeky listener mail related to fair use. Remember kids, none of this is legal advice. II. From Tony Mast at Back Seat Producers: May a media reviewer review fan fiction or other unlicensed copyright-protected media without liability? A. A little about fanfic, just in case you’re a non-geek lawyer listening to this. Melina also educates Geoff about “slashfic.” B. Fanfic against the four fair use factors. C. The Cases: The courts have touched Twin Peaks, Star Trek, and Harry Potter, and it hasn’t ended well for the fanfic writers. D. Geoff asks the audience to help him out with a piece of Twin Peaks trivia. E. Movie reviews of fanfiction against the fair use factors. III. From @Tresi: What kinds of format shifting are allowed under US law, and is there any interesting case law or history regarding the state of fair use for digital media? A. A little about format shifting, just in case you’re a non-techie listening to this. B. The seminal (and hopefully not too boring) statutes. IV. Catch Melina at Visioncon (http://www.visioncon.net/) this weekend, Friday, February 17th and Saturday, February 18th! V. Happy Valentine's Day a.k.a. Happy Love a Lawyer Day! Flowers and scotch welcome. Geoff thinks every day is Friday the 13th. VI. Our Super Bowl picks! And catch us both in two weeks for another great episode!