Proposal for Fair Use Extension for Online Usage

Was thinking about what I could do with my online posting that would really demonstrate my understanding of what the medium is capable of and where it should be going, and it became obvious that it was in figuring out some way to think differently about how multi-media content is included in the general narrative, i.e., how it doesn't just become dots on a screen instead of ink on paper, when those dots can do so much more. I obviously don't have budget/time to create all kinds of original content, just as most don't, which is why so many bloggers quote everybody and their brother at length, like junior high kids padding out their essays. Sure occasionally there are the blowhards like me who can ramble on and on about just about anything, even when they don't know anything about it, but the blogosphere is still dominated by liberal quoters. But you can't quote movies and songs like that. I would love to be able to throw a couple of bars from the Replacements "Bastards of Young"

in an article rather than just their corresponding lyrics:

"God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten"Full lyrics
but I can't.

Here's a link to current Fair Use guidelines for podcasters:
Podcasting Legal Guide: Fair Use Under Copyright Law and Its Application to Podcasts

This is why youtube and its brethren is really under threat, and why the negotiations between them and the major studios are so crucial to the youtubes of the worlds', and indirectly our, futures.

Here's my thoughts:

Proposal for Fair Use Extension for Online Usage

A publisher agrees to only use x% of material in its relevant medium down to a minimal level (varies per medium), and that material may only appear on some % of however you define the potential online universe, and should have some link to a range of commercial outlets for that product with its copyright owner, or contact information if out-of-print/unavailable commercially.

Details:

Recorded performances would have to have a minimum length to be eligible, as there would be no point in having a 5 second minimum for most sound-effects, making their inclusion commercially unviable. So a recorded performance would have to be a minimum of 30 seconds in length, contain at most 1/4 of the shortest commercially available version of that content, and be linked to the online commercial outlet of your choice for that content, either directly on the posting, or via an indexed page for that posting detailing the usage of copyrighted materials in the posting. The same sort of formula could be developed for each medium, eg. a still frame would be the smallest freely publishable snippet from a video recording, but only a fraction of an original still photograph, both with the same commercial linkage requirements.

The publisher's portion of the bargain is enforced by voluntary submission to some standard basic traffic analysis software system, like Google Analytics to verify that the system is not being abused by a commercial publisher. This strikes the balance between anonymity of recipient of a publisher's traffic while giving the aggregate numbers needed by the content owner to ensure that commercial opportunities are not being subverted by the agreement.

Does that make sense? Thoughts?

buy The Replacements "Bastards of Young" on