Fandoms, Fan Fiction, and Fair Use: Transformative Use For Creators, Part 1

On March 28th, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, exploring issues in fair use and transformative use in copyright law. Fair Use, a vital and stable codified right, is integral in copyright law’s mission—promoting the progress of science and art in teaching, scholarship, and research. The case questions how we apply the transformative use standard, a facet of fair use, and potentially threatens the current standards of transformativeness required to comply with copyright law.

Library Futures co-authored an amicus brief joined by The Software Preservation Network, EveryLibrary Institute, American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, and Association of Research Libraries. This brief reminds the court of the importance of consistent, stable interpretations of fair use; it underscores that this holds especially true for libraries and archives in order to fulfill their roles in research, preservation, scholarship, and instruction. But this decision stands to impact more than just the information science community…

Join Library Futures Fellows (Juliya Ziskina and Emily Finch) in the first of a two part series on transformative and fair use. This session will be moderated by University of Michigan’s Copyright Specialist, Raven Lanier, with Harvard Law’s Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment and founder of the Organization for Transformative Use, Rebecca Tushnet, and University of Tulsa Professor of Law, Betsy Rosenblatt, on transformative use in fan fiction. Learn more about the role fair use, and especially transformative use, plays in fandoms for content users and creators and where the Warhol v. Goldsmith case stands to affect fan fiction creators.