Re: Copyrighting/Patenting a Conlang

Herman Miller scripsit:

> Would fair use include things like brief quotations for the purpose of
> illustrating some grammatical point of a conlang? I haven't really given
> much thought to that sort of thing in the past, but I know that I've
> used things like a line from a song or a movie as translation exercises.
> I can't imagine that quoting and translating single sentences or brief
> phrases would be a problem, but then I couldn't have imagined that such
> a thing as software patents could be legal a few years ago.
Almost certainly.

"Fair use" is even less defined than "derivative work"; it is specifically
handled in a case-by-case fashion.  There are four factors that a court
must consider in evaluating a defense of fair use (the court is free to
consider other factors as well, nor are the factors to be construed as
specific tests):

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is
    of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to
    the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the
    copyrighted work.

It seems clear that your use wins on all four factors.

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