[WikiEN-l] Have we ever had a reader complaint of a lack of spoiler tags?

[Andrew Gray]

On 24/05/07, Angela Anuszewski <angela.anuszewski at 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.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk