US Copyright Law & Freedom of Speech

I will be writing a more in-depth article about this later, but I just wanted to post this for now to set the record straight.

According to the US 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. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances. See FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21, Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians"

"It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the copyright law to the owner of copyright. These rights, however, are not unlimited in scope....In some cases, these limitations are specified exemptions from copyright liability. One major limitation is the doctrine of “fair use,” which is given a statutory basis in section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act."

"The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”

As you can see, briefly quoting the work of another writer, providing credit, is not against copyright law regardless of whether that author consents. If it was against the law, I doubt we would see very many negative book reviews where passages were quoted and criticized. I have the legal right to an opinion and to freedom of speech. I have the right to speak my mind about a person's statements. I have the right to criticise, review, and comment upon any peice of writing. We here at Hospital Birth Debate have every right to quote passages from other blogs, so long as we are doing to express an opinion--not to profit.

Slander, libel, and defamation of character are not an issue so long as no lies or rumors are being spread.