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Poster: Alison OK Date: Oct 22, 2018 10:40am
Forum: news Subject: Electronic Frontier Foundation: EFF Urges Supreme Court to Support Fair Use in TVEyes Case

Debates about the media have become a big part of U.S. political discourse. Is the coverage on networks like Fox, CNN, or MSNBC accurate? Is it fair? Is it fake? The networks run 24/7, so analysts have to review a staggering volume of material to really answer these questions. That’s where a service like TVEyes, which creates a searchable database of broadcast content from thousands of television and radio stations, comes in. A recent decision from the Second Circuit found that some of TVEyes’ services are not fair use and infringe copyright. EFF has joined an amicus brief [PDF] urging the Supreme Court to review and overturn this decision.

The case began when Fox News sued TVEyes in federal court in New York. Fox argued that TVEyes’ service infringes the copyright in its broadcasts. The district court issued two opinions. First, it wrote an encouraging ruling that found the TVEyes search engine and displays of clips are transformative and serve the new purpose of analysis and commentary. Later, the court issued a second decision that found some aspects of TVEyes’ service (such as allowing clips to be archived) are not fair use. Both sides then appealed to the Second Circuit.

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