If you've been following copyright debates for more than, say, 10 minutes, you're probably aware that "some rights good, more rights better!" might well be the motto of many content owners. Fair use and fair dealing put limitations on these otherwise exclusive rights, and they do so on the theory that copyright is not an absolute right to control and profit from every single use of a particular work. News reporting, classroom use, commentary, parody; in the US, at least, these don't require either permission or payment. But content owners aren't necessarily down with this way of thinking, and copyright expert William Patry believes that a "counter-reformation" is in the works to crimp worldwide plans to expand fair use.
A federal appeals court has overruled a lower court ruling that, if sustained, would have severely hampered the enforceability of free software licenses. The lower court had found that redistributing software in violation of the terms of a free software license could constitute a breach of contract, but was not copyright infringement. The difference matters because copyright law affords much stronger remedies against infringement than does contract law. If allowed to stand, the decision could have neutered popular copyleft licenses such as the GPL and Creative Commons licenses. The district court decision was overturned on Wednesday by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.