Have you ever sent a takedown notice to a pirate—or anyone you believe is violating your copyright? A new ruling from a US appeals court says that copyright owners (such as authors or publishers) must consider whether fair use applies before issuing such notices.
The case brought to the appeals court is worth reading about—it involves the music industry rather than the publishing industry—but in a nutshell, the courts now look unfavorably upon any corporation or individual blithely filing or sending takedown notices without stopping to consider whether the use might be legal. Read more about the issue here.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
