From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:49:36 -0400

In the Chronicle of Higher Education today,

http://chronicle.com/blogs/tweed/cupcakes-collide-with-tuscaloosa-trademarks/30290?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en:

"Overeager trademark enforcers at the University of Alabama cooked up
another controversy last week, threatening a local baker with legal
action for violating the Tuscaloosa institution’s trademark with
Crimson Tide-themed cakes and cookies.  But after a few days of sharp
protests from critics, Alabama decided it was getting, well, a little
too hot in the kitchen. The university withdrew the threat."

Seems to me that's a specimen of a rightsholder who doesn't know when
it's in its own interest to acknowledge fair use and let a small
dollar revenue stream dry up.  Wouldn't it be a nicer world if
universities and publishers and Disneys made a *point* of their own
admiration for and respect for fair use as a principle?  If they
convinced the general public that they get it about where a reasonable
boundary lies between what we can do for free and when we should start
paying licensing fees?

I cannot think offhand and would welcome examples of
rightsholders who have done a good job of that kind of
marketing.  I'll pay you a rights fee a *lot* more happily if I feel
in my gut that they're more or less on the same page with me about
where that boundary lies.


Jim O'Donnell
Georgetown