Some Reflections on Custom in the IP Universe

This article is a short response to Jennifer Rothman's claim that the customary practice offers a poor foundation for the narrow reading that many courts give to the fair use defense in copyright law. It argues that her position is sound insofar as it protests the threat of litigation as a means to aggrandise property rights, but misunderstands in connection with both artistic and written works the weakness of the fair use doctrine when cheap means are potentially or actually available for the dissemination of works through license. The fair use doctrine avoids a low transaction cost, but suffers the greater inconvenience of eliminating one or more revenue stream for the author, which diminishes the initial incentive to produce.

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