DRAFT FAQ: Free vs. Open

[Philippe Verdy]

> De : Matthew Flaschen [mailto:matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu]
> Envoyé : vendredi 11 janvier 2008 07:12
> À : License Discuss
> Objet : Re: DRAFT FAQ: Free vs. Open
> 
> Philippe Verdy wrote:
> > "Fair use" is not relevant for documents that are text only.
> 
> Yes, as a matter of fact it is.
> 
> Fair use applies to any copyrighted work in the U.S., and short extracts
> for "quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of
> illustration or comment" (http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html) in a
> non-commercial work like the OSI mailing list is generally very safe.

You spoke about fair use in relation with France. France DOES have a right
of citation but much more limited than fair use in US which is much broader
and is applicable to text-only quotations (excluding all other related
rights such as page layouts, fac simile copies, artistic designs...). I was
clear in what I wrote that this refered to France only, and even this was
also clear in the message that I was commenting: "France has no fair use",
and for which I wanted to add that it was not enough because we have some
limited tolerance form of it with more restrictive conditions (and many
legal caveats restricting it).

"Fair use" is extremely country-specific (and even in US there are legal
caveats, with regard to citing someone illegally disclosing national
security secrets or trade secrets or stolen private data), but in contrast,
the "right of citation" is nearly universal as long as you can prove that
there was a legal and verifiable public disclosure of the sentences by its
author.