On 23/02/2008, WJhonson@aol.com WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
That has not been the actual experience. "Reasonable" is an added herring. Fair use is fair use.
Yes but because we are not a court for the most part we are dealing with fair use cases. Why we think something is fair use. These reasons should be at least broadly consistent with both statute law and case law. So no reasonable is not a red herring.
Book covers should be allowed to be used, without restriction.
That would be a descision for the courts and frankly I can't see them producing a ruling that broad. In addition since both playboy and playboy and Scientology have published books I really really would not like to rely on a universal "they will never sue"
All book covers are fair use.
Fair use is about use. So closest you could ever get to that would be along the lines of "Use X would be considered fair use for any book cover". There are many uses for which a book cover would not be considered fair use.