Judicial Response: A Safe Harbor in the "Fair Use" Doctrine

Abstract

Despite the cries of some commentators that copyright law is dead (or at least that they wish it was), copyright law is fully capable of responding to the challenges posed by the new technologies of the digital revolution. Copyright law initially developed in response to the invention of the printing press, and has a long history of addressing changes in technology. Where Congress has not explicitly made provisions for the new technology, the courts have stretched statutory interpretation and common law doctrines to do so. The courts' express goal in fitting existing copyright law to new technologies has been to strike a balance between stimulating artistic creativity through the limited monopoly provided by copyright and providing "broad public availability of literature, music and the other arts."