On 24/05/07, Angela Anuszewski angela.anuszewski@gmail.com wrote:
That's a good point. Print encyclopedias might not contain spoiler warnings, but how many of them contain plot details or even plot summaries? Would it even be legal for Brittanica to include as many details as Wikipedia when it comes to plots of copyrighted works? I doubt it.
That's an interesting pint, has anyone ever tried to bring a legal challenge over that? How detailed a summary can still be considered fair use?
A trivially small quotation has been held to be not fair use (well, not fair dealing) - the ruling was, I believe, that if you take the only bit of any actual interest and quote that you're damaging the ability to sell the book. I'd have to dig around a bit to find the case, but I believe it was a politicians memoirs being quoted in a newspaper.