A California Federal District court recently dismissed a complaint filed against UCLA officials in a case involving streaming videos for student viewing. Association for Information Media and Equipment v. Regents of the University of California, 10-9378 (C.D. Cal. November 20, 2012). The Plaintiffs alleged that the Defendants copied DVDs they had licensed from the Plaintiffs and streamed the reformatted content to students.
The Court did not determine if the Defendants’ actions violated copyright law, but the Court’s discussion of fair use in this case is instructive. The Court discussed fair use in determining that the Defendants had qualified immunity.
For further discussion of this case, see: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2012/11/26/another-fair-use-victory-for-libraries/. In this blog, Kevin Smith discusses how this case fits with other recent fair use cases.