IEEE Spectrum: The Gray Areas of Search-Engine Law:
The Gray Areas of Search-Engine Law By Mark Anderson First Published January 2008U.S. law has not caught up with search-engine technology and its implications
29 January 2008—The law is always playing catch-up with technology. But in the world of search-engine law, say some scholars, the courts have only begun to recognize the existence of a train leaving the station, let alone chase after it.
The legal gray zones of Internet search are vast, says James Grimmelmann of New York Law School. But they still can be outlined and defined.
In an article in the November 2007 issue of the Iowa Law Review , Grimmelmann writes that four broad areas of law—intellectual property, free speech, antitrust, and the openness of search algorithms—are still very much up for grabs in Internet search. And the next few years could see rulings, settlements, or legislation that will put some of the key legal cornerstones in place.
“The biggest undefined area is how far fair use extends in copyright,” Grimmelmann says, referring to the doctrine that allows for use of copyrighted materials for the purposes of education, public interest, or parody. How broadly Google or Yahoo or any of their peers can claim fair use to index Web sites, databases, books, and other copyrighted content, he says, is the essential issue. And the pending lawsuits filed against Google’s new Book Search engine are where Grimmelmann says the biggest legal aftershocks could originate. ...
Here is a link to James Grimmelmann's important paper.
Thanks to Frank Pasquale for tipping me off to this article.
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