On March 31, 2016, a federal judge issued the latest ruling in the copyright infringement lawsuit against Georgia State University. Emphasizing the non-transformative nature of the uses in question, the court laid out the newest standards for evaluating the four fair use factors. These new standards will be detailed in this presentation.
In a case that began in April of 2008, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and Sage Publications sued Georgia State University claiming that massive copyright infringement was occurring through the manner in which faculty and students utilized the university’s e-reserves and learning management systems. After eight years of litigation, almost six hundred (600) pages of court opinions analyzing fair use, and over $3.3 million in attorney’s fees and costs, Georgia State University was found to have violated fair use in four (4) of the ninety-nine (99) original instances of alleged copyright infringement. As instructed by the 2014 ruling from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the judge re-examined the application of fair use eliminating the 10% or one (1) chapter approach taken in her original decision. This presentation will detail the new standards for evaluating fair use as articulated in the latest court decision. Further, the significance of the fact that this opinion focuses on the non-transformative nature of the uses litigated will be examined. Finally, the ruling will be discussed in relation to its implications for policies and protocols utilized by institutions of higher education.