Kevin Smith (Scholarly Communications Officer, Duke University) introduces Fair Use week, taking place Feb. 24-28, and organized by the Harvard Library’s Office for Scholarly Communication. Smith contextualizes this celebration, noting that fair use:
is today one of the most important underpinnings of scholarship. We argue about its scope sometimes, but we rely on it everyday. The most basic relationship in academic writing, the quotation of a scholar in another scholar’s work, is a form of fair use that is so central and natural to scholarship that we forget what it really is and the body of law that it depends on. Fair Use Week is worthy of celebration on our campuses because it is a reminder that this aspect of copyright law is a sine qua non for scholarship and has been for a great many years.
To keep up on activities and discussions throughout the week, follow @fairuseweek on Twitter and the hashtag #fairuseweek.
