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April 29, 2008, 12:38 PM ET
A Class Blog Studies Fair Use
A professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law has created a nifty blog for students to hash out a debate about a fictional copyright-infringement case.
The blog, What Is Fair Use?, follows students’ arguments about whether the song “K Cera Cera,” created by former members of the band The KLF, infringed on “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera),” a tune made famous by Doris Day. Students, all posting anonymously under the name “Friedman Advocates,” have linked to interesting copyright debates around the Web, as well as parodies, satires, and other controversies involving fair use. You can find music and video mash-ups on the blog, too.
The blog, created by associate professor Peter B. Friedman, supplements a legal analysis and writing class. Each semester the students are given a legal problem that’s used in their writing assignments. Mr. Friedman said this is the first time he’s used a blog to extend class discussion, and the second time he’s chosen a fair-use issue for the course theme (the previous fair-use problem covered Google’s library digitization project).
“Of all the things I’ve tried, the blog has been the most successful in promoting discussion,” Mr. Friedman told the Chronicle. “It’s certainly especially suited to fair-use discussions, since we can post videos.”
He said he has been trying to get in touch with the former members of The KLF—which some believe stands for Kopyright Liberation Front, though the origin is disputed—to hear their thoughts on the fictional case.
—Catherine Rampell
Categories: Teaching, Legal-Troubles
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