Fair use and the US Copyright Office

While looking one again for the very useful summary of fair use provided by the US Copyright Office, it occurred to me again that their homepage has no link to this document. There is also no link to the document in their FAQ. Given how much some (most?) publishers loathe fair use and seek any way possible to undermine it, I cannot help but see this omission as anything other than the result of industry pressure to hide the doctrine of fair use from the public. Surely it is not a coincidence, given that when one googles for “fair use” the Copyright Office page comes up in second position right behind Wikipedia. If one googles for “copyright reproduction,” it gets top billing. Clearly it is an oft-consulted and -cited page, which makes its absence all the more conspicuous.

If this bothers you, too, then ask the Copyright Office to add a link. Also, consider getting the word out via tweets, blogs, etc.