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Originally Posted by teh603
Are we talking cited quotes or uncited quotes?
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Citation has nothing to do with copyright infringement. It protects you from accusations of plagiarism--which is not a crime, just something that academic settings forbid. (Fraud is the relevant crime. Attempting to pass of someone else's work as specifically yours, for profit, is fraud. Plagiarism is not a crime--or many comedians wouldn't have a career.)
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Because cited quotes in academic papers used to be considered fair use, and if they suddenly become plagarism/infringement- even if properly sourced- then it'll drive American colleges, universities, and even most high schools to a screaming halt. No more papers longer than a paragraph or two, and especially no more Masters' Theses and Doctoral Dissertations.
Holy unforseen consequences, Batman!
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Yes, "let's go after any unauthorized copying and nevermind that pesky fair use excuse" means pretty much an end to academia. As it is, there are colleges that have been told they can't quote a TV Guide episode listing exactly, because it might be infringement--the researcher would have to paraphrase.
The big media companies pushing for [SOPA/PIPA/whatever the next acronym soup game is] are thinking that "copyright infringement" means "downloading an avi you didn't pay for" or "uploading TV episode clips to YouTube," not "quoting someone else's thesis without getting a signed consent form." They really are oblivious to the fact that EVERYTHING written is copyrighted.