An Update on Fischer's Fair Use Free For All

As I first reported this morning, FranklinNOW blogger and legislative aide Kevin Fischer is quite fond of cutting and pasting entire passages written by other authors, in violation of the Fair Use doctrine.

Curious to know whether the folks who run the NOW websites condone this kind of plagiarism, I emailed Mark Maley, the NOW Online Editor:

From: Zachary W. [mailto:XXXXX@bloggingblue.com]
Sent: Fri 6/27/2008 9:32 PM
To: Mark Maley
Subject: Fair Use on FranklinNow Blog


Dear Mr. Maley:

I'm writing this email to express my concern regarding repeated violations of the Fair Use doctrine by Kevin Fischer, a blogger on the FranklinNow website. In his blog on your website, Mr. Fischer has repeatedly posted large segments of material taken from other authors, a fact that seems to be in direct violation of the Fair Use doctrine as explained by the United States Copyright Office, which states in part:

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: "quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported."

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

Here's a list of just a few of Mr. Fischer's blog entries which I believe violate Fair Use, and I would appreciate you taking a look at the entries in question and providing me with your opinion on whether you feel the entries in question violate Fair Use.

http://blogs.franklinnow.com/this_just_in/archive/2008/06/27/what-s-great-about-america-part-1.aspx
http://blogs.franklinnow.com/this_just_in/archive/2008/06/25/u-s-supreme-court-rules-against-detah-penalty-for-child-rape.aspx
http://blogs.franklinnow.com/this_just_in/archive/2008/06/23/sympathy-for-these-absent-minded-individuals-no-way.aspx
http://blogs.franklinnow.com/this_just_in/archive/2008/06/22/why-wiscosin-can-t-be-like-arizona.aspx

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Zachary W.

Here's the response I received from Mark Maley:

From: Mark Maley
Date: Sat, Jun 28, 2008 2:40 pm
To: "Zachary W."
Cc:

Zachary:
You'll have to take this up with Kevin Fischer, who is responsible for the content of his own blog.

I'll send him a copy of your email and my response.


Mark Maley
NOW Online Editor

And perhaps the coup de grâce, a response from Kevin Fischer, the king of maturity:

From: "Kevin Fischer"
Date: Sat, Jun 28, 2008 8:32 pm
To: "'Zachary W.'"
Nice try, Drippy!

What's your next move to try to silence me?

Going to run and tattle to Senator Lazich?

Maybe you should just mind your own business, get a life, and worry about
your own sorry blog.