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Actually, the AP likes fair use after all

By Rebecca Tushnet

At least when it's the AP doing the copying! TPM reports that an internal AP memo explains its fact-checking process on Sarah Palin's new book:

"The AP was determined to get the first copy," Oreskes [a senior managing editor] wrote, detailing how the writers learned a store had "inadvertently placed the book on sale five days before its official Nov. 17 release date." "They bought a copy, ripped it from its spine and scanned it into the system so it could be read and electronically searched," he wrote.

I do think this is fair use: it's an intermediate use with the ultimate product distributed to the public being a fair use, indeed a canonical fair use--quotation for purposes of critical review. (Albeit a scoop, a little reminiscent of Harper & Row v. Nation.) But it would behoove the AP to take note that a robust fair use doctrine is good for news reporting, given the AP's high-protectionist stance in other instances.

Full post as published by 43(B)log on November 20, 2009 (boomark / email).