Fair Use Doctrine In The Art And Music Industry

Student Name Course Instructor Date Fair Use Doctrine in the Art and Music Industry The society expects all people to abide by the laws and to practice honesty in all aspects of life including academic and professional careers. The arts and music industry especially put a lot of emphasis on the honesty aspect so as to ensure the production of quality material and also to prevent the duplication of stuff already done. The industry has been able to achieve and maintain the standards required through strict licensing rules and procedures such as copyrights and patents which provide legal rights to the initiator of the original material exclusive ownership for the material usage and distribution. The digital age, however has been at the center of creating great developments in sound recording techniques that include mashups, sampling and remixes and which all infringe on the owners right to his/her original material. These rapid technological developments that have given rise to digital and electronic music, for example, have as a result necessitated further enactments of the licensing laws in the United States. The fair use doctrine is one such attempt by the US government to protect the artistic creations. The term paper therefore intends to examine the fair use doctrine, highlight at least one legal case regarding it, and identify the rights of the artists and copyright owners and in all paying particular attention to the rapidly evolving digital world. Understanding the Fair Use Doctrine Reddy mentions the fair use doctrine as “the law of the United States that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having first to acquire permission from the copyright holder” (Reddy 29). The doctrine is one of the major limitations to copyright that is aimed to fuse the public interests with those of the copyright holders. The duplication of the copyrighted materials is deemed fair and not an infringement if done for transformative and limited purposes such as criticism, teaching, scholarship and news reporting. The law was enacted as an effect of the evolving digital world where there has been a revolution of electronic music which has made its accessibility and transference very easy and fast. It is quite common nowadays to find a new music album released in the US being listened to by some kids in Malaysia barely minutes later and through the internet they are able to download and make copies of it. The mashups and remixes have also attributed to the dilution of the music industry where the original version of a song is twisted into various forms with the slight incorporation of different beats. These sound recording techniques have been used since the early twentieth century with the earliest being the recording of the nightingale orchestra. It however, picked up significantly between the 1940’s and 1960’s where there was a revolution in the music scene. A good example in the 1960’s is the proto mashup by James Tenney using a commercial recording of an Elvis Presley song. The fair use doctrine is governed by four factors which also create a clear distinction between that which is fair and an infringement. Reddy in the article also identifies the four factors as: * “The nature of the copyrighted work. * The purpose a...