RE: Clipping Services

["Reb Thomas" <reb-thomas@xxxxxxxxx>]

Regarding arguments for and against commercial "fair use," you probably
should be familiar with the Texaco case (
ftp://www.arl.org/copyright/texaco/majority ) and that line of cases.
People can argue both ways in these situations, but if your activity is
important for your organization, why not contact the various newspapers and
make appropriate arrangements so you can avoid any misunderstanding.
Otherwise, you will find that the newspapers will argue that if it is
important for the people on your distribution list to get the information
you are sending them, they should each buy a subscription.  And if it is not
important, why do it and expose your firm to the risk.

Regards,

Calhoun "Reb" Thomas
Thomas Law Firm
"Helping entrepreneurs with patents & other IP rights"
1201 Main Street, Suite 1980
Columbia, SC 29201
803-748-1303 (office)
803-787-9959 (fax)
reb-thomas@xxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: Deborah_Showalter-Johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:Deborah_Showalter-Johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 12:37 PM
To: digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Clipping Services


For years, my organization has been clipping articles from newspapers
published in a 7 state area.  Once clipped, the articles are copied,
compiled and the resulting pages, grouped under a title like "NewsUpdate",
 are distributed to multiple department heads in multiple locations.  In
my half of the state there are about 20 receivers of the resulting
document.  The document may then be routed inside the department.   This
compilation allows everyone in our 7 state area to see articles written
about the organization, its people and the effect the decisions made by
our people have on the community.  It keeps everyone in the organization
up-to-date.   Is this type of document considered Fair Use?  If we were to
put the document on an internal website rather that mailing
out physical copies, would that change anything?  If we were to email the
document to users, would that change the status?  This has probably come
up before or may seem obvious to most, but I would appreciate any thoughts
on this type of publication.  Thanks very much.

Deborah K. Showalter-Johnson

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