News  /  October 12, 2012  /  ,

Big Bird in spotlight over ‘fair use’ in political campaigns

KHIKS founding/managing partner Larry Iser was quoted in Ted Johnson’s article in Variety on the intellectual property issue of “fair use” in the presidential campaign.

The “fair use” doctrine is a limitation on a copyright owner that allows copyrighted works to be reproduced for certain purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.  However, it’s not always clear what is infringement and what is fair use, so additional factors are often considered in the determination.

As one of the leading attorneys on copyright disputes in political campaigns, Larry says there’s no longer an excuse for professional political operatives when it comes to the need to obtain permission from copyright holders before using protected intellectual property.  He adds that the campaigns lately seem to be hiding behind fair use as a way around the permission requirements.