US House Panel to Consider ‘fair use’

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property will hear arguments for and against current limitations on copyright protections at a hearing today.

Some of Tuesday’s witnesses — including Newspaper Association of America general counsel Kurt Wimmer and singer/songwriter David Lowery — will tell subcommittee members that the fair use doctrine is working as intended and should not be rewritten.

June Besek, executive director of Columbia Law’s Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, will warn panel members of the “extraordinary” expansion of fair use, according to her written testimony. “Fair use is not a carte blanche to make unlimited use of others’ work, even for a socially beneficial cause,” she wrote.

Tags: Art Law, congress, Copyright, fair use, hearings, June Besek, legislation, u.s.