[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Not true. Affirmative defenses are rights, not privileges. The only significant thing about an affirmative defense is that if you have one and fail to raise it on a timely basis, you are deemed to have waived it. It's totally a question of procedure.

I quoted from the report made for Congress by a Legislative Attorney with the title of Fair Use on the Internet.

Originally Posted by Harmon

Judges make determinations about what constitutes fair use at the margins, & within the definitions of this section. Things that are obviously fair use don't get into court, as a rule - exceptions being when you have obtuse plaintiffs.

Nothing is obviously fair use. Everything is on a is determined on a case-by-case basis:

This resource works mostly with 17 U.S.C. § 107 on fair use, which provides the conditions that allow the limited use of copyrighted works. Again, these strategies are general rather than specific, and fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis.

There are no clear-cut rules for deciding what's fair use and there are no "automatic" classes of fair uses. Fair use is decided by a judge, on a case by case basis, after balancing the four factors listed in section 107 of the Copyright statute.

Section 107 is not meant to be specific. Rather, Congress intended for fair use to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Fair use is not a straightforward concept, therefore the fair use analysis must be conducted on a case-by-case basis.

Fair use is decided by courts on a case-by-case basis after balancing the four factors listed in section 107 of the Copyright Act.