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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Fair use needs leeway [SocioPolitico]

David Weinberger has a perceptive and important insight into the issue of fair use in connection with digital rights management. He points out that much that might be termed 'fair use' is made possible by the exercise of leeway:

If we build software that enables us to "negotiate" usage rules with content providers, the rules can be as favorable as we'd like but their enforcement will necessarily be strict, literal and unforgiving. Binary, not human.

A comment on David's blog expands on this:

The better the society, the less law there will be. ... The worse the society, the more law there will be.

No amount of precision can actually protect fair use, because by its nature it is created by imprecision, leeway and generosity. If we have to resort to rules or law to protect fair use, the battle is already lost.

posted at 10:13 PM (UK) | |