OT: be careful quoting Faulkner

[Dave Wilton]

It's the same rules. One of the qualifiers for fair use is the intended
purpose. Using material for commercial purposes (like in an ad for a defense
contractor) is less likely to be considered fair use than for, say, academic
discourse. Other factors include the amount and substantiality of the quoted
material (how much and is it a key passage that would cause someone not to
buy the work), the nature of the work quoted (you can more freely quote from
academic works or political speeches, say, than from works produced for a
commercial market; in this case a key question is whether the Harper's
article is still available for commercial purchase), and the effect on the
value of the original work (nil in this case),

Still, quoting one line, even for commercial purposes, probably falls within
the category of fair use since all the other factors appear to be Northrup
Grumman's favor. ("Probably" because there are no hard and fast rules when
it comes to fair use. Everything is contextual and dependent on analogy with
past rulings by judges, and you never know whether something is indeed fair
use until a judge rules it so.)

It looks to me like the Faulkner estate is just trying to wheedle money out
of a big corporation; which might pay just to have them go away. Litigious
literary estates are nothing new.



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Joel S. Berson
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 10:03 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: OT: be careful quoting Faulkner

Doesn't commercial use come under different rules?

Joel

At 11/2/2012 12:24 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>The TechDirt website has an article about another lawsuit filed by the
>litigious Faulkner estate.
>
>
>[Begin excerpt]
>
>Faulkner Estate Keeps Suing: Sues Washington Post Over Ad That Quoted
>One Sentence
>
>by Mike Masnick on Wed, Oct 31st 2012
>
>http://bit.ly/TfInHE
>
>
>.
>
>The second lawsuit, filed Friday, was against the Washington Post and
>defense contractor giant Northrop Grumman. Why? Because Northrop
>Grumman ran an ad in the Washington Post that quoted (with attribution)
>a single sentence from a Harper's article that Faulkner once wrote.
>
>
>
>The ad, which ran on July 4th, 2011, included: "We must be free not
>because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. -- William
>Faulkner." It had a giant image of an American flag and some more text
celebrating July 4th.
>
>[End excerpt]
>
>
>On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 10:40 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: OT: be careful quoting Faulkner
> >
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
> >
> > At 10/26/2012 05:00 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
> > >If there have been any lawsuits against quotation references
> > >recently I have not heard about them. Perhaps a lawsuit asking for
> > >damages due to torturous interference with the truth (and even
> > >plausibility) might succeed against one of the big online databases of
misquotes.
> > >
> > >(I know the torturous is an eggcorn for tortious.)
> >
> > As Faulkner wrote, in an ode of self-praise,
> >
> > Come crown my brow with leaves of myrtle, I know the tortoise is a
> > turtle, Come carve my name in stone immortal, I know the turtoise is
> > a tortle.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > P.S.  I expect the Literary Estates of both Faulkner and Nash to be
> > soon filing against me.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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