Are you curious how the Google Books fair use decision came about? Today Techdirt called my attention to a fascinating lecture by Judge Pierre Leval, one of the most important figures in the current interpretation of fair use, and one of the major motivators in the recent Google Books decision.
On Techdirt, Brandon Butler summarizes a 40-minute lecture by Leval during the Fourth Annual Peter A. Jaszi Distinguished Lecture in Intellectual Property at the American University Washington College of Law in which Leval discussed the modern history of fair use decisions from his point of view, and then explains exactly why the Google Books ruling to come out the way it did. Butler also links to a recording of the speech and I’m watching it now. (If you want to skip past the preliminaries, Leval’s remarks start at about 10:55 into the recording). …
Das Video: http://www.pijip.org/judgeleval/