|
Seraph, the language of the law you cite is exactly what I was citing. Ten cuidado (be careful), however, because the true bounds of the "fair use doctrine" is defined by caselaw. There's a lot of research involved. Suffice to say, education institutions have largely been given a "by" (pass) on the issue. If my memory form law school (5 years ago) serves correctly, under technical interpretations photocopies handed out to a class may infringe on copyright. However, professors have been given a pass so long as they cite the original work. In effect, it's like university plaigarism policies (based on the "gold standard" UVM policy) have been integrated into the judicial view of copyright law. However, dissenting cases can be found.
Yorick, as NightStalker pointed out, you confuse the pracitce of "filesharing" with the reproduction of copyrighted materials. Filesharing has more uses, and is not per se illegal in and of itself. However, the current famous use of filesharing has involved copyright infringement, so the issue gets confused. File sharing is a tool that can be exploited, just like burning CDs. In each case, there are instances where the TOOL of file sharing can be used perfectly legally. No slam on protecting copyright is intended here, I'm just pointing out that people should be able to use file sharing to share files legally.
I point this out in part because I know NightStalker has been working on ways to prevent the illegal transfer of copyrighted files while preserving the practice of legal file sharing.
__________________
 
|