"Fair Use" Not in OED

[Baker, John]

        I understand that the term is used in Curtis, A Treatise on the
Law of Copyright 236 - 37 (1847), in the chapter on Infringement of
Copyright, the first paragraph of which reportedly includes this
passage:  "[W]e must bear in mind that while the primary object of the
law of copyright is protection to the product of all literary labor, the
interests of knowledge demand a reasonable freedom in the use of all
antecedent literature. To administer the law in such a manner as not to
curtail the fair use of existing materials, in any department of
letters, is one of the great tasks of jurisprudence."


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Fred Shapiro
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 8:50 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "Fair Use" Not in OED

The copyright law term _fair use_ is not in OED.  The coinage is said to
occur in the case of Lawrence v. Dana, 15 Fed. Cas. 26 (1869).

Fred Shapiro

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