Downloading Copyrighted Songs on File-Sharing Network Is Not 'Fair Use'

In an important decision interpreting the fair use provision of the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. &sect;107), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held that downloading full copies of copyrighted material without compensation to authors cannot be deemed "fair use." In <i>BMG Music v. Gonzalez</i>, 430 F.3d 888 (7th Cir. 2005), Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, rejected the defendant's argument that she was immune from liability because she was merely sampling songs that she had downloaded from the KaZaA file-sharing network on a "try-before-you-buy basis."

25 minute readMarch 01, 2006 at 09:56 AM
By
Leslie Gordon Fagen, Andrew G. Gordon
Darren W. Johnson
Downloading Copyrighted Songs on File-Sharing Network Is Not 'Fair Use'

In an important decision interpreting the fair use provision of the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. '107), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held that downloading full

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