Question

One of the more controversial topics for students at this community college is the cost of textbooks. Textbooks are written for many reasons, not the least of which is the publisher royalties that are paid to the author(s). Publishers are eager to enforce "fair use" laws that prohibit students from copying materials offered in a given text. Discuss your interpretation of the fair use laws and how you think they relate to students. Are they fair? Also consider how you would interpret the laws if you were the author.

Answer 1

Answer:

A fair use is a copying of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright ower for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as quoting a few lines from a song for a music review or summizing from a medical article for use by a teacher in a lesson.  

This relates to students because material is vital for their study. Imagine that you have to ask for permission whenever you extract a few copyrighted material for your report or presentation. Fair use laws enable you to use more material with ease.  

From the author’s view, some may think that this law has a negative impact on them as they lose a large amount of money. However, the more people can access to copyrighted material, the better the original version will become. It is because the original will be commented and criticized by other experts like the way a scientific paper is published. Furthermore, fair use laws help students from low-income families access to better education so that they can become productive people and contribute to society. I think owner will be happy and have a sense of achievement because they do such a good thing. Moreover, a fairly extensive use of the original work is permitted in a parody in order to “conjure up” the original, so the owner will benefit from this when their mental children are beautified.

To sum up, I think fair use law is a human law because thanks to it, education can be free and accessible for more people, especially the poor. Although this law is not beneficial for authors in some cases, its effect may go beyond the things that money can bring, it is humanity.

Reference:

https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/