Why Clean Flickss Practices Look a Lot Like Other Examples of “Fair Use” How can Clean Flicks respond to such strong arguments?
Its first strategy might be to point out that while it has always been anathema to an artist when someone else makes mincemeat of his or her carefully-crafted work – selecting only some parts, and excising others – that is often just what the “fair use” doctrine allows. Consider parody, a classic example of fair use. Parody appropriates portions of the original in order to mock it – the ultimate insult to the artist. One good example is the novel “The Wind Done Gone,” a “Gone with the Wind” parody that aggravated the Margaret Mitchell estate so much that it sued the author. The estate won before the trial court but lost on appeal – as I argued in a prior column should happen – and the book is now available for any who is interested in reading it, without a cent going to the estate. Or think of a book, movie, or music review – another classic “fair use” example. Such reviews can legitimately sample the work upon which they provide comment, and do so selectively – using quotations of tex
