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Tracy Boyington wrote:
>(unless you can somehow make it fit under the fair use guidelines).
Does anyone know how the courts have ruled on "fair use" when corporations
use copyrighted material? The fair use guidelines seem to be fuzzy.
Recently, my company decided to use a quote from an Arthur C. Clarke book
in its marketing literature. My boss asked me for advice, and I showed him
the page from the AP Style Manual, which discusses "fair use" in the
context of critical reviews and academic use. To him, it was enough rope.
We wound up running the quote, with attribution, using the rationalizations
that, if we were wrong, our audience was small, the chances of being caught
were small, and the potential penalty would be small. (My boss owns the
company, and he is the marketing department.)
Mitchell Gibbs
Technical Writer
Advantage Software, Inc.
