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