links for 2010-08-28

This article reconsiders the history of copyright’s pivotal fair use doctrine. The history of fair use does not in fact begin with early American cases such as Folsom v. Marsh in 1841, as most accounts assume - the complete history of the fair use doctrine begins with over a century of copyright litigation in the English courts.

I Love You Phillip Morris, the highly buzzed about gay prison dark comedy starring the two unpredictable actors, has announced it will hit screens Dec. 3. The film—about an ex-cop with a penchant for insurance fraud (Carrey) and his jailhouse romance with inmate and con artist Phillip Morris (McGregor)—made a big splash at Sundance in 2009 and drew high marks from European critics, but struggled to find a distributor in the U.S.