Hiya Law!
I wish we were together. But we’ll try to make the most of being apart as we work our way through the last five weeks of Journalism & Law.
The best way to prepare for Thursday’s test is to review all of your outlines, the You Be the Judge in-class exercises, class emails and readings.
You Be the Judge Exercise
The last YBJ we did in class was on Copyright’s Fair Use Test. I’ve attached it, and here is my interpretation of the case.
- B.I.G.’s use of the Ohio Players song was for a commercial purpose.
- He used only “a snippet” (a very small portion) of the song.
- There’s no evidence here that the market for the Players’ song was adversely affected.
- But B.I.G. did not transform the Players’ snippet; he just incorporated it into his work.
An appeals court would not be sympathetic to B.I.G. because of his commercial purpose and his not transforming the song, even though he used only a small portion. I’d guess the jury verdict would be upheld. Bottom line: if you’re using someone else’s work, get permission!
I’ll email you your scores individually.
Current Events
FOIA’d again: The FBI has limited public records requests during the pandemic by prohibiting email requests and instructing those who seek documents to send their requests via mail, BuzzFeed News reports.
Not that it matters because they only respond to 1% of requests anyway!
Test #2
I’ll email you Test #2 at 1 Thursday, after which the email will be posted on the WordPress page: https://journalismandlaw.wordpress.com
Return only your numbered answers to me by email. Do not return the test itself. Your responses should be short and to the point. Deadline is 1 p.m. Friday unless you make other arrangements with me. I’ll then return scores and an answer key to you.
I miss seeing you! I hope you’re keeping well!
All best,
k
Journalism and Law 