Tech & VC 12 May 2007 08:32 am
Implications of Fair Use Caching
Over a year ago, a Nevada court ruled that Google’s cache falls within the boundaries of fair use.
Does that mean that when I download copyrighted* streaming media (like internet radio) and cache the result, my cache of the streaming media falls under fair use?
Or, does the fallacy in this logic rest in the fact that Google’s cache is strictly text data and I’m talking about caching audio/video data?
It seems silly to set up two different standards based on the contents of packets. Packets are packets. Beyond its copyright status, it shouldn’t matter what’s in a packet for caching to be considered fair use. If caching any copyrighted* packet is legal, than caching all copyrighted* packets should be legal.
However, if caching streaming media is fair use, then I could setup a server that caches every internet radio station out there and dumps the data into S3. Then, I’d have a universe of every song ever broadcast. Legally.
So, what’s the catch?
* By “copyrighted” I’m referring to strict, “all rights reserved” copyright, not CC.
One Response to “Implications of Fair Use Caching”
on 13 May 2007 at 10:56 pm 1.Nathan Dintenfass said …
IANAL, but it’s not about the mechanism of “copying” when determining what is and is not fair use — there are a series of factors (the law is far from drawing clear bright lines on the matter) to be considered that are more about the nature of your use of the material (for instance, whether your use is commercial, how much of it you use, and what impact the use has on the market for the work, etc.).