"Late Friday, the federal district court in Nevada issued a declaratory judgment that makes is harder for copyright holders to file lawsuits over excerpts of material and burden online forums and their users with nuisance lawsuits."
The judgment - part of the nuisance lawsuit avalanche started by copyright troll Righthaven - found that Democratic Underground did not infringe the copyright in a Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper article when a user of the online political forum posted a five-sentence excerpt, with a link back to the newspaper's website.
Excellent post on fair use, its flaws and the danger of copyright accusation without trial. This is an example of remix and appropriation of an image where the author could not afford to go to court and potentially lose (multiple times $150,000) and so settled out of court at $32500.
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed suit against an Australian record company for misusing copyright law to remove a lecture by Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig from YouTube. With co-counsel Jones Day, EFF is asking a federal judge in Massachusetts to rule that the video is lawful fair use, to stop Liberation Music from making further legal threats, and to award damages."
Report on copyright 'infringement'. It doesn't mention that many of its 'hits' relate to material used under US Fair Use legislation, therefore not infringing copyright.