This presentation covers the Appellate Court review of the District Court\u27s findings in the academic publishers\u27 and Copyright Clearance Center\u27s case against Georgia State University\u27s electronic reserve policies

Strain, Judson L.

English

Olivet Nazarene University

Olivet Nazarene UniversityDigital Commons @ OlivetFaculty Scholarship – Library Science Library6-9-2015The Georgia State University Copyright Case afterthe Appeal: Is It More Appealing?Judson L. StrainOlivet Nazarene University, jlstrain@olivet.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/lsci_facpPart of the Information Literacy Commons, Scholarly Communication Commons, and theScholarly Publishing CommonsThis Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Library at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in FacultyScholarship – Library Science by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contactdigitalcommons@olivet.edu.Recommended CitationStrain, Judson L., "The Georgia State University Copyright Case after the Appeal: Is It More Appealing?" (2015). Faculty Scholarship –Library Science. 17.https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/lsci_facp/17OrI love that dirty waterDr. Judson L. Strain, J.D., M.L.I.S.Full case citation – Cambridge University Press v. Patton, 769 F.3d 1232 (11th Cir.2014)Appellate Court Takes a red pen to Trial Court decision, rejects the “10% or one Chapter” rule among other “corrections”, but… Strengthens Fair Use by affirming many of the Trial Court’s rulings, but… Rejects Trial Court’s method of weighing the four Fair Use factors ‘Concurring’ opinion really a dissent – rejects Fair Use for educational use.“…we thought we had a rule, even if many of us didn’t like it – 10% or one chapter was the amount Judge Evans said was ‘decidedly small’….  The bad news is that we no longer have that rule.  The good news is that we no longer have that rule.…the situation is not much different than we have always known it to be, there is just a little more mud in the water.” Kevin Smith, (from his blog, SCHOLARLYCOMMUNICATIONS @ DUKE on 10/30/2014) Updated history of the case What the Appeals Court decided “Four Factors of Fair Use” review How the Court used the Four FactorsWe will also ask Can you use the decision to stay within the bounds of Fair Use? Implications of the decision Jury Trial:  Copying three medical illustrations from a book to use before a jury Kinko's smacks me down Limits me to One blow-up copy(!!) Prof owns a book -- wants to use a portion of it in his class Options Pass the book around to each student to read Have each student purchase the book Each student purchases a portion of the book Allow the prof. to copy & distribute a reasonably small portion of the bookWe don’t know.If you are copying excerpts from a scholarly, informational book, excerpts must be no larger than: 10% of the book – if it is 0–9 chapters; or 1 chapter (or its equivalent) – if it is 10 or more chapters long “The District Court’s blanket 10 percent-or-one-chapter benchmark was improper.” (Patton, 769 F.3d at 1271) “We must … eschew a rigid, bright-line approach to fair use.” (Id. at 1271) Was the “10 percent-or-one-chapter benchmark” too much?-- No. Was the “10 percent-or-one-chapter benchmark” too little?-- No.“Why We Need Bright Lines”“…the celebrated district court opinion in the (GSU) case … opened up the possibility of teaching faculty how to properly make fair use of material using plain terms and easy-to-understand concepts while the appeals court returns us to the days of case-by-case holistic analysis and detailed exceptions, loopholes, and caveats.” “When intellectual property law experts cannot agree, we should not expect our history and math faculty to do justice to the fair use analysis each time.  Instead, faculty will divide into two camps.  One group will “throw caution to the wind” and use whatever content they wish in whatever form they desire, hoping never to raise the ire of the publishing companies.  The other, out of an abundance of caution, will self-censor, and fail to make fair use of content for fear that they might step over a line they cannot possibly identify, and can never be certain of until a judge rules one way or the other.  Either way, our students and the publishers lose out.” “The Constitution teaches that the purpose of copyright is to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.”  The district court opinion found that small excerpts available to students “would further the spread of knowledge.”  Arming faculty with clear rules and standards to properly balance fair use of content would go a long way toward achieving this goal.”Joseph Stortch, Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 20, 2014 We are going to craft a new standard from the Appellate Court’s decision that will allow us to stay within the bounds of Fair Use. “A book reviewer who copies snippets from a book is likely to increase demand for the book, but...” “were a book reviewer to quote the entire book in his review, or so much of the book as to make the review substitute for the book itself, he would be cutting into the publisher’s market, and the defense of fair use would fail.”  However, cannot use “the most interesting and moving parts of the entire manuscript” or “the heart of the book” even where the defendants only copied approx. 300 words out of the 200,000 words in the plaintiff's work.”  See, e.g., Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539 (1985) 75 excerpts from 64 Books (not journal articles) All for courses in Social Sciences or Language fields All informational – no fiction or poetry. All are scholarly monographs or edited books NO TEXTBOOKS (i.e.,  specifically written to guide the instruction of a classroom of students) All books owed by GSU library or professorCopying Procedure Library scans excerpt to digital (.pdf) file Uploads digital file to Electronic Reserves system Placed on a password-protected course page Student accesses via pass code from prof. Student must acknowledge and agree to respect copyrighted nature of the materials After semester is over, students can no longer access the excerptsCase Timeline: April 15, 2008 -- suit is filed vs. GSU February 17, 2009 – GSU modifies copyright policy – institutes a checklist Aug. 20, 2010 – Publishers claim 126infringements under new policy – claims “massive”  infringements May 17, 2011 – Trial begins – Publishers now claim 99 violations (drops 27 claims) Publishers present their case in chief After the close of Publishers’ case, they drop 25 claims – now claim 74 violationsCase Timeline (cont.): GSU presents their case Order of May 11, 2012 -- The Court rules on the 74 claims 27 claims “thrown out” – no prima facie case (Publishers’ proof fails before a defense is mounted) 43 claims are Fair Use – no violation of copyright by GSU 5 claims are upheld – GSU went beyond Fair Use boundaries  In total, less than 4% of the original 126 claims of copyright violation (5 out of 126) are upheldCase Timeline (cont.): Order of Aug. 10, 2012 -- “The Court is convinced that Defendants did try to comply with the copyright law;  this is demonstrated by the fact that there were only five successful infringement claims.” (Court Order of Aug. 11, p. 11) Requires GSU to modify copyright policy to conform to the Court’s decision Disseminate essential points of the ruling to faculty & relevant staffCase Timeline (cont.): Court declares  GSU the “prevailing party” and requires Publishers to pay GSU’s attorneys’ fees and costs Order of Sept. 30, 2012 – GSU awarded $2.86 million in attorneys’ fees and $85.7 thousand in costs. (Court Order of Sept. 30, p. 10) Any Original work with a “modicum of creativity” that is “fixed” in a tangible medium of expression is subject to copyright. Owner of the copyright – has the sole right to sell, copy, reproduce and/or publicly perform or display that work. Exception:  Fair Use Purpose (Commercial vs. Non-profit Educational) Nature (Creative vs. Factual) Amount (Substantial vs. Decidedly Small) Effect on Marketplace (Harm sale of Original?)Tim Gritten, et. al., "Georgia State University, Copyright, and Your Library" (ALA Webinar of 7/25/2012)Purpose (Commercial vs. Non-profit teaching) Statute 17 U.S.C. sec 107 Preamble – “[T]he fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching(including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” Here, “Non-profit teaching” = strongly favors GSU – Appellate Court Agrees Contrast – Kinko’s Coursepacks (sale for profit) vs. copies for college class (non-profit teaching)Nature (Creative vs. factual) Poetry – Telephone directoryTrial Court followed Kinko’s decision (Basic Books, Inc. v. Kinko’s Graphics Corp., 758 F.Supp. 1522 (S.D.N.Y.1991) – Scholarly biographies, reviews, criticism and commentaries are “informational” in nature, i.e. Factual. These were “factual” = Favors GSU:  Appellate Court Disagrees, but says 2nd factor was “of relatively little importance to this case”.Amount (Substantial vs. Decidedly Small)District Court defines “decidedly small” Book < 10 chapters = up to 10% Book > 10 chapters = No more than 1 chapter (or its equivalent) – Appellate Court rejects “Bright Line” approach. District Court rejects Classroom Guidelines –Appellate Court agrees. 1976 minimum Fair Use “Safe Harbor” Publishing Industry’s idea of Fair UseIs a complicated, headache-inducing document1976 Classroom GuidelinesRequires Brevity – For prose items, “Either a complete article, story or essay of less than 2,500 words, or (b) an excerpt from any prose work of not more than 1,000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less, but in any event a minimum of 500 words.” Spontaneity— The inspiration and decision to use the work and the moment of its use for maximum teaching effectiveness are so close in time that it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to a request for permission.1976 Classroom Guidelines, (cont.) One Time Only – “Copying shall not ... be repeated with respect to the same item by the same teacher from term to term.”Publishers lobbied for these as Maximum Fair UserequirementsDistrict Court rejected each one – as did the Appellate Court.Effect on Marketplace (Harm sale of Original?) Excerpt permissions readily available = Strongly favors Publishers -- Appellate Court agrees Excerpt permissions not readily available = favors GSU – Appellate Court agrees: BUT – Appellate Court says District Court erred by not giving 4th factor additional weight in its overall fair use analysis. Purpose (Commercial vs. Non-profit Educational) Strongly favors GSU – Upheld by Appellate Court Nature (Creative vs. Factual) Favors GSU – Appellate Court – Neutral or favors Publishers – but give little weight Amount (Substantial vs. Decidedly Small) Favors GSU if Decidedly Small (< 1ch./10%) (see above) Favors Publishers if larger – Appellate Court rejects Effect on Marketplace (Harm sale of Original?) Strongly favors Publishers – if excerpt permissions readily available – Appellate Court agrees Favors GSU – if no excerpt permissions readily available –Appellate Court agrees – but Trial Court should give more weight to 4th factor 3 GSU vs. 1 Publishers = Fair Use (GSU wins) 2 GSU vs. 2 Publishers = Danger Zone – Court does further analysis Publishers won five of six 2–2 “ties”Appellate Court rejects “mechanistic” analysis “the District Court did err by giving each of the four factors equal weight, and by treating the four factors mechanistically.  The District Court should have undertaken holistic analysis which carefully balanced the four factors in the manner we have explained.” (769 F.3d at 1283) Trial Court’s “Fair Use” analysis was erroneous, as described above. Trial Court’s designation of GSU as the “prevailing party” (and the award of attorneys’ fees) was predicated on its Fair Use analysis. Accordingly, the award of attorneys’ fees and costs is vacated. Factor 1:  Non-profit  educational use favors Fair Use (Trial Court was correct) Factor 2:  Nature of the work – Consider the factual vs. creative content within the work –(Trial Court erred, but give it little weight) Factor 3:  No Bright Line Rules! (Trial Court erred) Factor 4:  Excerpt license availability is main factor to consider (Trial Court was correct) Holistic analysis required (Trial Court erred in “mathematical” and “mechanistic” weighing of 4 factors) 4th factor should be given additional weight Classroom Guidelines ARE NOT Fair Use limits Coursepack cases do not apply Case-by-case analysis does apply – no “categorical infringement” We don’t know.  The District Court may apply the Appellate Court’s standards and still end up with the same result (including award of attorneys’ fees) “How does one swim in water that is this muddy?” “At this point, my best advice is to keep on doing what we have been doing, thinking carefully about each situation and making a responsible decision.  I would recommend a somewhat more conservative approach, perhaps, than I would have done (before the Appellate Court decision), especially when a license for a digital excerpt is available.  But the bottom line is that the situation is not much different than we have always known it to be, there is just a little more mud in the water.”-- Kevin Smith, Swimming in Muddy Waters Factor 3:  Replace “Bright Line” rule (10%/1 chapter) with evaluative principlesUse the Appellate Court’s language: “Helped themselves overmuch” or Is the amount is appropriate in the light and character of the use? Is the amount used more likely to stimulate interest in the book and increase the demand for it or does it use so much of the book/work as to make it substitute for the work itself?My ObservationsKeep in mind that people may buy a book for several chapters but less than the whole work.  One shouldn't use so much of the work to defeat that customary use of a book.I would still note what percent was used but not make a “bright line” rule about it.Irony:  The result of my proposed Factor 3 analysis may be similar to the Trial Court’s Bright Line formula – 10% or One chapter – but the standard used is different.Heart of the Work? Gerald Ford Memoirs case (Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539 (1985) The Nation “scoops” Time, publishes  300-400 words from unpublished memoirs in advance of publication regarding the pardoning of Nixon. Time magazine cancelled deal to pay $$ for right to first publish excerpts Total work ~200,000 words Factor 1:  Note any transformative (i.e., different) use of the copyrighted material Is the work being criticized or commented on?  Ex. –L. Ron Hubbard’s books were extensively quoted in order to subject the books and their author to criticism (New Era Pub., Internat’l v. Carol Publishing Group, 904 F.2d 152 (2d Cir.1990) Consider whether your faculty is teaching about the work rather than just using it as a textbook substitute. Is the work being used for a different purpose than the original?  E.g., is it being presented as an example of scholarship in that field of study? (Historiography class showing articles that give a different take of the reasons for the American Revolution)See Brandon Butler’s Transformative Teaching and Educational Fair Use After Georgia State (soon to be published in the Connecticut Law Review --http://brandonbutler.info/post/112054748430/transformative-teaching-and-educational-fair-use) Note:  Finding of Transformational Use allows use of large amounts up to the full work as Fair Use. Consider using a “Fair Use Checklist”, adding new evaluative principles to Factor 3 and noting transformative and/or differing purpose uses in Factor 1See, e.g., GSU Fair Use Checklist at http://www.usg.edu/images/copyright_docs/fair_use_checklist.pdf Factor 1 – Purpose: (For profit vs. non-profit educational use?  Note: See also, Transformative Use) Factor 2 – Nature: (Nuanced – Creative vs. Factual)  Factor 3 – Amount: (Substantial vs. Decidedly Small) (Helped overmuch vs. appropriate in context?) (Amount stimulate interest vs. substitutes for original?) (Heart of the work; e.g., Gerald Ford Memoirs?) Factor 4 – Effect on Market: (Harm sale of Original?) Excerpt licensing available? Notes on Balancing:  Less weight to Factor 2, more to Factor 4 – But much more likely to be Fair Use if Transformational Use is shown. Publishers consider the appeal a loss Asked for rehearing of appeal – denied. Wanted to reshape, i.e., strangle “Fair Use” and failed Won’t REALLY know exactly what it means until after retrial Trial Court must re-weigh factors using Appellate Court’s instructions.  Didn’t tell how (or if) the different processshould change the results. Could have been much worse – see Appellate Court “concurring” opinion which obliterates “Fair Use”Cases Basic Books, Inc. v. Kinko's Graphics Corp., 758 F.Supp. 1522 (S.D.N.Y.1991) Cambridge University Press v. Becker, 863 F.Supp.2d 1190 (N.D.Ga., 2012) Cambridge University Press v. Patton, 769 F.3d 1232 (11th Cir.2014) New Era Pub., Internat’l v. Carol Publishing Group, 904 F.2d 152 (2d Cir.1990) Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539 (1985)GSU Court Orders: Order of May 11, 2012 –http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/georgia/gandce/1:2008cv01425/150651/423/ Order of Aug. 10, 2012 –http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/georgia/gandce/1:2008cv01425/150651/441/ Order of Sept. 30, 2012 –http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/georgia/gandce/1:2008cv01425/150651/462/Webinar Tim Gritten, et. al., "Georgia State University, Copyright, and Your Library" (ALA Webinar of 7/25/2012)Other Classroom Guidelines (1976) http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/classroom-guidelines.htm GSU Fair Use Checklist at http://www.usg.edu/images/copyright_docs/fair_use_checklist.pdf Brandon Butler’s Transformative Teaching and Educational Fair Use After Georgia State (soon to be published in the Connecticut Law Review at http://brandonbutler.info/post/112054748430/transformative-teaching-and-educational-fair-use Kevin Smith's blog Scholarly Communications @ Duke http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/10/30/swimming-muddy-waters/ Joseph Stortch, Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 20, 2014 https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/10/20/ruling-copyright-fair-use-will-hurt-professors-students-and-publishers-essayWeb blog Kevin Smith’s Scholarly Communications @ Duke, http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/

The Georgia State University Copyright Case after the Appeal: Is It More Appealing?

Digital Commons @ Olivet

Olivet Nazarene University
Digital Commons @ Olivet
Faculty Scholarship – Library Science Library
6-9-2015
The Georgia State University Copyright Case after
the Appeal: Is It More Appealing?
Judson L. Strain
Olivet Nazarene University, jlstrain@olivet.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/lsci_facp
Part of the Information Literacy Commons, Scholarly Communication Commons, and the
Scholarly Publishing Commons
This Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Library at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty
Scholarship – Library Science by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact
digitalcommons@olivet.edu.
Recommended Citation
Strain, Judson L., "The Georgia State University Copyright Case after the Appeal: Is It More Appealing?" (2015). Faculty Scholarship –
Library Science. 17.
https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/lsci_facp/17
Or
I love that dirty water
Dr. Judson L. Strain, J.D., M.L.I.S.
Full case citation –
 Cambridge University Press v. Patton, 769 F.3d 
1232 (11th Cir.2014)
Appellate Court
 Takes a red pen to Trial Court decision, rejects 
the “10% or one Chapter” rule among other 
“corrections”, but…
 Strengthens Fair Use by affirming many of the 
Trial Court’s rulings, but…
 Rejects Trial Court’s method of weighing the 
four Fair Use factors
 ‘Concurring’ opinion really a dissent – rejects 
Fair Use for educational use.
“…we thought we had a rule, even if many of us didn’t 
like it – 10% or one chapter was the amount Judge 
Evans said was ‘decidedly small’….  The bad news is 
that we no longer have that rule.  The good news is 
that we no longer have that rule.
…the situation is not much different than we 
have always known it to be, there is just a little more 
mud in the water.” 
Kevin Smith, (from his blog, SCHOLARLY
COMMUNICATIONS @ DUKE on 10/30/2014)
 Updated history of the case
 What the Appeals Court decided
 “Four Factors of Fair Use” review
 How the Court used the Four Factors
We will also ask
 Can you use the decision to stay within the 
bounds of Fair Use?
 Implications of the decision

 Jury Trial:  Copying three medical illustrations 
from a book to use before a jury
 Kinko's smacks me down
 Limits me to One blow-up copy(!!)
 Prof owns a book -- wants to use a portion of it 
in his class
 Options
 Pass the book around to each student to read
 Have each student purchase the book
 Each student purchases a portion of the book
 Allow the prof. to copy & distribute a reasonably 
small portion of the book
We don’t know.
If you are copying excerpts from a scholarly, 
informational book, excerpts must be no larger 
than:
 10% of the book – if it is 0–9 chapters; or
 1 chapter (or its equivalent) – if it is 10 or more 
chapters long
 “The District Court’s blanket 10 percent-or-
one-chapter benchmark was improper.” 
(Patton, 769 F.3d at 1271)
 “We must … eschew a rigid, bright-line 
approach to fair use.” (Id. at 1271)
 Was the “10 percent-or-one-chapter 
benchmark” too much?
-- No.
 Was the “10 percent-or-one-chapter 
benchmark” too little?
-- No.
“Why We Need Bright Lines”
“…the celebrated district court opinion in the 
(GSU) case … opened up the possibility of 
teaching faculty how to properly make fair use of 
material using plain terms and easy-to-understand 
concepts while the appeals court returns us to the 
days of case-by-case holistic analysis and detailed 
exceptions, loopholes, and caveats.”
 “When intellectual property law experts cannot 
agree, we should not expect our history and 
math faculty to do justice to the fair use 
analysis each time.  Instead, faculty will divide 
into two camps.  One group will “throw 
caution to the wind” and use whatever content 
they wish in whatever form they desire, hoping 
never to raise the ire of the publishing 
companies.  The other, out of an abundance of 
caution, will self-censor, and fail to make fair 
use of content for fear that they might step over 
a line they cannot possibly identify, and can 
never be certain of until a judge rules one way 
or the other.  Either way, our students and the 
publishers lose out.”
 “The Constitution teaches that the purpose of 
copyright is to “promote the Progress of 
Science and useful Arts.”  The district court 
opinion found that small excerpts available to 
students “would further the spread of 
knowledge.” 
 Arming faculty with clear rules and standards 
to properly balance fair use of content would 
go a long way toward achieving this goal.”
Joseph Stortch, Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 20, 2014
 We are going to craft a new standard from the 
Appellate Court’s decision that will allow us to 
stay within the bounds of Fair Use.
 “A book reviewer who copies snippets from a 
book is likely to increase demand for the book, 
but...”
 “were a book reviewer to quote the entire book 
in his review, or so much of the book as to 
make the review substitute for the book itself, 
he would be cutting into the publisher’s 
market, and the defense of fair use would fail.” 
 However, cannot use “the most interesting and 
moving parts of the entire manuscript” or “the 
heart of the book” even where the defendants 
only copied approx. 300 words out of the 
200,000 words in the plaintiff's work.”  See, 
e.g., Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation 
Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539 (1985)

 75 excerpts from 64 Books (not journal articles)
 All for courses in Social Sciences or Language 
fields
 All informational – no fiction or poetry.
 All are scholarly monographs or edited books
 NO TEXTBOOKS (i.e.,  specifically written to 
guide the instruction of a classroom of 
students)
 All books owed by GSU library or professor
Copying Procedure
 Library scans excerpt to digital (.pdf) file
 Uploads digital file to Electronic Reserves 
system
 Placed on a password-protected course page
 Student accesses via pass code from prof.
 Student must acknowledge and agree to 
respect copyrighted nature of the materials
 After semester is over, students can no longer 
access the excerpts
Case Timeline:
 April 15, 2008 -- suit is filed vs. GSU
 February 17, 2009 – GSU modifies copyright 
policy – institutes a checklist
 Aug. 20, 2010 – Publishers claim 126
infringements under new policy – claims 
“massive”  infringements
 May 17, 2011 – Trial begins – Publishers now 
claim 99 violations (drops 27 claims)
 Publishers present their case in chief
 After the close of Publishers’ case, they drop 25 
claims – now claim 74 violations
Case Timeline (cont.):
 GSU presents their case
 Order of May 11, 2012 -- The Court rules on the 
74 claims
 27 claims “thrown out” – no prima facie case 
(Publishers’ proof fails before a defense is mounted)
 43 claims are Fair Use – no violation of copyright by 
GSU
 5 claims are upheld – GSU went beyond Fair Use 
boundaries 
 In total, less than 4% of the original 126 claims of 
copyright violation (5 out of 126) are upheld
Case Timeline (cont.):
 Order of Aug. 10, 2012 --
 “The Court is convinced that Defendants did try to 
comply with the copyright law;  this is demonstrated 
by the fact that there were only five successful 
infringement claims.” (Court Order of Aug. 11, p. 11)
 Requires GSU to modify copyright policy to conform 
to the Court’s decision
 Disseminate essential points of the ruling to faculty 
& relevant staff
Case Timeline (cont.):
 Court declares  GSU the “prevailing party” and 
requires Publishers to pay GSU’s attorneys’ 
fees and costs
 Order of Sept. 30, 2012 – GSU awarded $2.86 
million in attorneys’ fees and $85.7 thousand in 
costs. (Court Order of Sept. 30, p. 10)
 Any Original work with a “modicum of 
creativity” that is “fixed” in a tangible medium 
of expression is subject to copyright.
 Owner of the copyright – has the sole right to 
sell, copy, reproduce and/or publicly perform 
or display that work.
 Exception:  Fair Use
 Purpose (Commercial vs. Non-profit Educational)
 Nature (Creative vs. Factual)
 Amount (Substantial vs. Decidedly Small)
 Effect on Marketplace (Harm sale of Original?)
Tim Gritten, et. al., "Georgia State University, Copyright, and Your 
Library" (ALA Webinar of 7/25/2012)
Purpose (Commercial vs. Non-profit teaching)
 Statute 17 U.S.C. sec 107 Preamble – “[T]he fair 
use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such 
as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
(including multiple copies for classroom use), 
scholarship, or research, is not an infringement 
of copyright.”
 Here, “Non-profit teaching” = strongly favors 
GSU – Appellate Court Agrees
 Contrast – Kinko’s Coursepacks (sale for profit) 
vs. copies for college class (non-profit teaching)
Nature (Creative vs. factual)
 Poetry – Telephone directory
Trial Court followed Kinko’s decision (Basic 
Books, Inc. v. Kinko’s Graphics Corp., 758 F.Supp. 
1522 (S.D.N.Y.1991) – Scholarly biographies, 
reviews, criticism and commentaries are 
“informational” in nature, i.e. Factual.
 These were “factual” = Favors GSU:  Appellate 
Court Disagrees, but says 2nd factor was “of 
relatively little importance to this case”.
Amount (Substantial vs. Decidedly Small)
District Court defines “decidedly small”
 Book < 10 chapters = up to 10%
 Book > 10 chapters = No more than 1 chapter 
(or its equivalent) – Appellate Court rejects 
“Bright Line” approach.
 District Court rejects Classroom Guidelines –
Appellate Court agrees.
 1976 minimum Fair Use “Safe Harbor”
 Publishing Industry’s idea of Fair Use
Is a complicated, headache-inducing document
1976 Classroom Guidelines
Requires
 Brevity –
 For prose items, “Either a complete article, story or 
essay of less than 2,500 words, or (b) an excerpt from 
any prose work of not more than 1,000 words or 10% 
of the work, whichever is less, but in any event a 
minimum of 500 words.”
 Spontaneity—
 The inspiration and decision to use the work and the 
moment of its use for maximum teaching 
effectiveness are so close in time that it would be 
unreasonable to expect a timely reply to a request for 
permission.
1976 Classroom Guidelines, (cont.)
 One Time Only –
 “Copying shall not ... be repeated with respect to the 
same item by the same teacher from term to term.”
Publishers lobbied for these as Maximum Fair Use
requirements
District Court rejected each one – as did the 
Appellate Court.
Effect on Marketplace (Harm sale of Original?)
 Excerpt permissions readily available = 
Strongly favors Publishers -- Appellate Court 
agrees
 Excerpt permissions not readily available = 
favors GSU – Appellate Court agrees:
 BUT – Appellate Court says District Court 
erred by not giving 4th factor additional weight 
in its overall fair use analysis.
 Purpose (Commercial vs. Non-profit Educational)
 Strongly favors GSU – Upheld by Appellate Court
 Nature (Creative vs. Factual)
 Favors GSU – Appellate Court – Neutral or favors Publishers – but 
give little weight
 Amount (Substantial vs. Decidedly Small)
 Favors GSU if Decidedly Small (< 1ch./10%) (see above)
 Favors Publishers if larger – Appellate Court rejects
 Effect on Marketplace (Harm sale of Original?)
 Strongly favors Publishers – if excerpt permissions readily 
available – Appellate Court agrees
 Favors GSU – if no excerpt permissions readily available –
Appellate Court agrees – but Trial Court should give more weight 
to 4th factor
 3 GSU vs. 1 Publishers = Fair Use (GSU wins)
 2 GSU vs. 2 Publishers = Danger Zone – Court 
does further analysis
 Publishers won five of six 2–2 “ties”
Appellate Court rejects “mechanistic” analysis
 “the District Court did err by giving each of the 
four factors equal weight, and by treating the 
four factors mechanistically.  The District Court 
should have undertaken holistic analysis which 
carefully balanced the four factors in the 
manner we have explained.” (769 F.3d at 1283)
 Trial Court’s “Fair Use” analysis was 
erroneous, as described above.
 Trial Court’s designation of GSU as the 
“prevailing party” (and the award of attorneys’ 
fees) was predicated on its Fair Use analysis.
 Accordingly, the award of attorneys’ fees and 
costs is vacated.
 Factor 1:  Non-profit  educational use favors 
Fair Use (Trial Court was correct)
 Factor 2:  Nature of the work – Consider the 
factual vs. creative content within the work –
(Trial Court erred, but give it little weight)
 Factor 3:  No Bright Line Rules! (Trial Court 
erred)
 Factor 4:  Excerpt license availability is main 
factor to consider (Trial Court was correct)
 Holistic analysis required (Trial Court erred in 
“mathematical” and “mechanistic” weighing of 
4 factors)
 4th factor should be given additional weight
 Classroom Guidelines ARE NOT Fair Use 
limits
 Coursepack cases do not apply
 Case-by-case analysis does apply – no 
“categorical infringement”
 We don’t know.  The District Court may apply 
the Appellate Court’s standards and still end 
up with the same result (including award of 
attorneys’ fees)
 “How does one swim in water that is this 
muddy?”
 “At this point, my best advice is to keep on doing 
what we have been doing, thinking carefully about 
each situation and making a responsible decision.  
I would recommend a somewhat more 
conservative approach, perhaps, than I would have 
done (before the Appellate Court decision), 
especially when a license for a digital excerpt is 
available.  But the bottom line is that the situation is 
not much different than we have always known it to be, 
there is just a little more mud in the water.”
-- Kevin Smith, Swimming in Muddy Waters
 Factor 3:  Replace “Bright Line” rule (10%/1 
chapter) with evaluative principles
Use the Appellate Court’s language:
 “Helped themselves overmuch” 
or
 Is the amount is appropriate in the light and 
character of the use?
 Is the amount used more likely to stimulate interest 
in the book and increase the demand for it 
or
 does it use so much of the book/work as to make it 
substitute for the work itself?
My Observations
Keep in mind that people may buy a book for 
several chapters but less than the whole work.  
One shouldn't use so much of the work to defeat 
that customary use of a book.
I would still note what percent was used but not 
make a “bright line” rule about it.
Irony:  The result of my proposed Factor 3 
analysis may be similar to the Trial Court’s Bright 
Line formula – 10% or One chapter – but the 
standard used is different.
Heart of the Work?
 Gerald Ford Memoirs case (Harper & Row 
Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539 
(1985)
 The Nation “scoops” Time, publishes  300-400 
words from unpublished memoirs in advance 
of publication regarding the pardoning of 
Nixon.
 Time magazine cancelled deal to pay $$ for 
right to first publish excerpts
 Total work ~200,000 words
 Factor 1:  Note any transformative (i.e., 
different) use of the copyrighted material
 Is the work being criticized or commented on?  Ex. –
L. Ron Hubbard’s books were extensively quoted in 
order to subject the books and their author to 
criticism (New Era Pub., Internat’l v. Carol Publishing Group, 904 F.2d 
152 (2d Cir.1990)
 Consider whether your faculty is teaching about the 
work rather than just using it as a textbook 
substitute.
 Is the work being used for a different purpose than the 
original?  E.g., is it being presented as an example of 
scholarship in that field of study? (Historiography class 
showing articles that give a different take of the 
reasons for the American Revolution)
See Brandon Butler’s Transformative Teaching and Educational Fair Use 
After Georgia State (soon to be published in the Connecticut Law Review --
http://brandonbutler.info/post/112054748430/transformative-teaching-and-
educational-fair-use)
 Note:  Finding of Transformational Use allows use of large 
amounts up to the full work as Fair Use.
 Consider using a “Fair Use Checklist”, adding 
new evaluative principles to Factor 3 and 
noting transformative and/or differing 
purpose uses in Factor 1
See, e.g., GSU Fair Use Checklist at 
http://www.usg.edu/images/copyright_docs/fair_use_checklist.pdf
 Factor 1 – Purpose: (For profit vs. non-profit 
educational use?  Note: See also, Transformative Use)
 Factor 2 – Nature: (Nuanced – Creative vs. Factual) 
 Factor 3 – Amount: (Substantial vs. Decidedly Small)
 (Helped overmuch vs. appropriate in context?)
 (Amount stimulate interest vs. substitutes for original?)
 (Heart of the work; e.g., Gerald Ford Memoirs?)
 Factor 4 – Effect on Market: (Harm sale of Original?)
 Excerpt licensing available?
 Notes on Balancing:  Less weight to Factor 2, more to 
Factor 4 – But much more likely to be Fair Use if 
Transformational Use is shown.
 Publishers consider the appeal a loss
 Asked for rehearing of appeal – denied.
 Wanted to reshape, i.e., strangle “Fair Use” and failed
 Won’t REALLY know exactly what it means until 
after retrial
 Trial Court must re-weigh factors using Appellate Court’s 
instructions.  Didn’t tell how (or if) the different process
should change the results.
 Could have been much worse – see Appellate 
Court “concurring” opinion which obliterates 
“Fair Use”
Cases
 Basic Books, Inc. v. Kinko's Graphics Corp., 758 
F.Supp. 1522 (S.D.N.Y.1991)
 Cambridge University Press v. Becker, 863 F.Supp.2d 
1190 (N.D.Ga., 2012)
 Cambridge University Press v. Patton, 769 F.3d 1232 
(11th Cir.2014)
 New Era Pub., Internat’l v. Carol Publishing Group, 
904 F.2d 152 (2d Cir.1990)
 Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 
471 U.S. 539 (1985)
GSU Court Orders:
 Order of May 11, 2012 –
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-
courts/georgia/gandce/1:2008cv01425/150651/423/
 Order of Aug. 10, 2012 –
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-
courts/georgia/gandce/1:2008cv01425/150651/441/
 Order of Sept. 30, 2012 –
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-
courts/georgia/gandce/1:2008cv01425/150651/462/
Webinar
 Tim Gritten, et. al., "Georgia State University, 
Copyright, and Your Library" (ALA Webinar of 
7/25/2012)
Other
 Classroom Guidelines (1976) 
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/classroom-
guidelines.htm
 GSU Fair Use Checklist at 
http://www.usg.edu/images/copyright_docs
/fair_use_checklist.pdf
 Brandon Butler’s Transformative Teaching and 
Educational Fair Use After Georgia State (soon to 
be published in the Connecticut Law Review at 
http://brandonbutler.info/post/112054748430/tra
nsformative-teaching-and-educational-fair-use
 Kevin Smith's blog Scholarly Communications @ 
Duke 
http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/
10/30/swimming-muddy-waters/
 Joseph Stortch, Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 20, 2014 
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/10
/20/ruling-copyright-fair-use-will-hurt-
professors-students-and-publishers-essay
Web blog
 Kevin Smith’s Scholarly Communications @ Duke, 
http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/


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The Georgia State University Copyright Case after the Appeal: Is It More Appealing?

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