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Reply to "Motherlode for signs, scans complete"

Copyrighted material is subject to a balancing act between protecting the author's creativity and the public's right to use the material - what is known as the "fair use" exception.

"Fair use" is one of the exceptions in copyright which allows use of copyrighted materials without obtaining permission as long as the use can be considered fair. There is a four-factor analysis which must be applied to each use to determine whether the use is fair. Each factor is given equal weight. The goal is to achieve a balance between the rights of the copyright holder and the rights of the public. 

The four factors are:

1. Purpose - for instance, is it for commercial, profit use (which is more protected) or is it for non-profit, educational or personal use (which is less protected).

2. Nature of the Original Work - is it factual (which is less protected) or is it fiction/creative (which is more protected).

3. Amount being Used - is it a large amount of material being reproduced (more protected) or a small amount (less protected).

4. Market Effect - will publication of the work have a major (more protected) or minor (less protected) impact on the author's sale of their original work.  

Given that the requested publication (scan) here is (1) not for profit or commercial use; and (2) it is not a creative or fictional work; and (3) it appears to be only a small portion of the author's full catalogue of product; and (4) it will not have a major impact (if any) on the author's sales of full scale signs, I'd be perfectly comfortable opining that the publication requested here falls into the fair use exception and can safely be done without fear of retribution.

FWIW, the same analysis could also be applied to the once-in-a-while scanning of individual pages of the DCS Companion book series, which is a subject that has come up here with some regularity since Barry's unfortunate passing.

 

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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