fair use, or, a matter of principle

A very long time ago, when I was still working on The Book, I made the acquaintance of E, who is the president of a Database Company (DC) that produces a Nineteenth Century Product (NCP). The NCP was one of many, and I do mean many, resources discussed in said book (roughly 300 in the book proper and another 130 in the appendix). Since making our initial acquaintance, E and I have had several discussions about nineteenth century research and the like. Recently E and I had the following exchange via e-mail (this is excerpted only):

E: "... How can we get access to the book? [Employee] can put a blurb about it at [website], which gets a good deal of hits, insofar as it speaks favorably (I hope) about our [NCP]..."

Me: "The book is available from the publisher and places like Amazon. [links inserted here] ... Thanks for the offer to put a blurb about the book on [DC's] support site. I really appreciate that."

E: "No problem. Is it possible to get an e-version of all/part of the [NCP] content? That’s our lead, then we’ll add the link to Scarecrow and Amazon…"

Me: "Well, there is an e-version of the book that could be purchased, but I can’t send a virtual copy of all or part of the book. I don’t want to violate the terms of the contract by posting sections online. I’m sure you understand."

E: "I understand, but a snipper is fair use, no? E.G. IF I wanted to cite a paragraph for a article I’m writing on 19th Stuides [sic], that’d fall into fair use. What think? FYI, we can discuss on Wed. at 11 am your time, which is good for me, if for you."

OK - we now return to our regularly scheduled blog post.

So there are a few thoughts I have about this exchange.

1. I feel like he wants to use sections of my book just to promote his product. I get that he's a businessman, but I feel like what he's suggesting devalues all of the time and effort I put in to writing a 321 page book. Yes, his product is mentioned, but it's not intended as a "review" per se. It is intended to explain what the product is and how scholars can use it, not serve as a promotional tool.

2. If he wanted to purchase a copy of said book and quote a few sentences related to NCP, I would have no problem with that as long as he provided attribution. That would fall under fair use, which I'm completely fine with. What irks me is his assumption that I would, should, and could just send him the paragraphs and pages that are about his product.

3. I feel like by a "snipper" (what the heck type of term is that anyway?) he means large sections of text not just a sentence or two. This may be somewhat unrelated to the first sentence, but him claiming "fair use" irritates me too since fair use (as I understand it) is largely in relation to academic use. According to the U.S. Copyright office, "Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports." I'm not sure if his purposes strictly fit the definition although I suppose one could argue that it would be "news reporting" of sorts.

So while I do hold the copyright for the intellectual contents of the book, there is this lovely little statement on the publication details page that says:

"All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review."

So from that I take it to mean that quotation is fine but reproducing the content is not. Seems simple enough. Even if I was not having qualms about what he's asking, I don't think I have the right to just send him a digital version. Besides, I don't even have a digital version of the final, printed book. I have a digital version of the page proofs, but those are 1) not the final version and 2) not intended for distribution.

I think it's cheap and lazy of him not to just purchase the book and find the relevant content on his own. I'd rather not encourage such behavior. I don't want him to take content and make it seem like I'm specifically endorsing his product when his was just one of many resources covered in the book. I suppose he thinks he's doing me some sort of favor by mentioning the book on his company's website, but the book will sell just fine without his extra plug for it. The publisher is responsible for promoting the book, and I think they're doing a fine job of it.

So am I unnecessarily irritated by the whole situation? Should I not so stubbornly refuse to send him the content he wants? What think you?

attack of the ants

A few weeks back I began noticing the occasional ant in my bedroom. Then two weeks ago when I was unearthing my apartment from the mess that had accumulated as I finished my book, I found that ant carcasses strewn across the floor by my bedroom windows. I promptly vacuumed up the nasty buggers and went out to buy some ant poison. With ant poison in place, I figured it would be only a matter of time before the ant colony dwindled and the queen herself was infected.

The ants were certainly attracted to the bait, and after a week or so, I began to notice the bodies piling up once again. This time I attributed it to the poison.

Melissa: 1
Ants: 0

Last night I vacuumed up the ants again. Perhaps 20 minutes after doing so, I noticed an ant craw out of the windowsill corner, carrying a dead ant. It walked around the ant poison, edged up to the ledge, and dropped the body down onto my clean carpet. I felt like it was his little ant way of sticking it to the man, so to speak.

Melissa: 1
Ants: 1

When I went back again that evening, that same ant was at it again, dropping dead bodies off of my windowsill onto my carpet. It's like he had been assigned to clean all the deceased out of the ant nest. I decided that he didn't deserve to live long enough to let the poison do him in, so I dedicated a Kleenex to the task.

Melissa: 2
Ants: 1

I think my next plan of attack will be to notify the landlady and let her deal with the ant problem in the building. The ants are not allowed to score another point in this battle. Victory will be mine!

mmm hmm

A few minutes ago I was walking upstairs to drop off a couple book orders. Two male students were walking a few steps ahead of me and were also heading for the second floor. When they reached the landing, the one on the left opened the door, and the one on the right stepped aside so that I could walk through first between them.

As I walk between them, the one on the right says, "Mmm hmm, now that's a hot librarian," as if I'm deaf and can't hear them.

I look at him with I would imagine a bit of an incredulous look on my face. He says, "No offense or anything. I'm just sayin' ..."

I just kind of waved it off and went on my way, but seriously?!? Rude, offensive, and inappropriate all spring to mind to describe my feelings about this. Someone never learned about manners and appropriate public behavior.

Sigh.

not news

CNN headline: Tiger Woods scandal keeps tabloids busy

Really? Really? Since when is the fact that the tabloids have a celebrity scandal to cover news?

student journalism strikes again

Having spent four years working at The Volante as an undergraduate, I have a certain affection for student newspapers in a very vague, general sense. I also tend to be highly critical of them. I know how important that experience can be for an aspiring young journalist, but I also know how crucial it is for them to learn certain lessons early on in the game.

Lesson 1: Do your homework before showing up to the interview. Even if you just received the assignment 45 minutes ago and are on a tight deadline, have a list of questions to bring with you. Do a little preliminary research. Your interviewee will respect you more and likely give you more information if you appear to know what you're talking about.

Lesson 2: Ask permission prior to recording someone. Your source may have reasons for not wanting to be recorded. Plus, recording may be prohibited in certain locations.

Lesson 3: Get the facts right. Yes, it matters if little details are correct in your story. Your credibility as a journalist and that of your newspaper depend upon it. Fact check, fact check, fact check!

Lesson 4: Get your sources' names right. This is certainly related to lesson 3 and is just as important. No one likes to see their name mangled, no matter how difficult it is to spell, so show your sources the courtesy of spelling theirs correctly.

Thus ends our journalism lesson for the day.

Sorry, an article just came out in The Breeze, our student paper, about the banned book reading that I planned and hosted in the library last week. Said aspiring journalist either forgot or never learned the above lessons. The interview was so poorly executed it was comic. The article said the reading was on Thursday when it was on Wednesday (he even attended it, so he should have known that).

But my favorite part is that from the article, I learned that my name is actually "Michelle Van Vurren." I'm so glad to know that. I'll have to correct my business cards and e-mail signature. How intuitive of him to discern the proper spelling and first name when the card I gave him and the e-mails I sent him contained such erroneous information. Silly me.

Said article may be read here: http://breezejmu.org/2009/10/05/printed-controversies/

time has flown

When April began several weeks ago, it seemed so full of promise and opportunity and time. Time was what I was most excited about. I would have time to work on my play indexing, time to complete a few more book chapters, and time to exercise and lose those irritating pounds before my sister's wedding. Of course, that time was whisked away by planning for the impending construction of Starbucks in our reference area, reassigning reference books, countless meetings, a general slump in motivation outside of work hours, and a little bit of personal drama for kicks. Then just when I was recouping from all that, allergies hit with a vengeance, followed by a particularly evil sinus infection, from which I am just now recovering.

The bottom line is yesterday I finally woke up from all that yuck and funk of the last 6 weeks and realized that it's nearly mid-May already. How did that happen? I need that time back! No seriously, I need that time back. Somehow I don't think I'm going to get a rain check on this one. The coming weeks don't look good for productivity either. C'est la vie!

This post brought to you by the number 13, the color gray, and a general overwhelming sense of gloom and doom.

more fun with ice

This morning I left my apartment with plenty of time to make my 9 a.m. meeting on time. I did not, however, anticipate having to scape my car. Admittedly, I should have been prepared for this option considering that it is mid-January. What I could not possibly have been prepared for is that once I scraped the outside windows, I would find that there was a layer of frost on the inside of the windshield as well.

It turns out that there's a leak somewhere in my car, specifically in the area of the rear passenger-side seat, judging by the puddle of frozen water standing on the floor. Looks like it's time to take the car in.

too far

OK - so I know that I'm more conservative than many people out there, but I seriously this is taking things a bit too far...

Porn Industry Seeks Federal Bailout

I really hope that Congress has enough good sense left to not entertain this request.