Each person in the chain only posted a small part of the work, and each post includes annotations and commentary that would seem to grant it fair use protections.
Is likely going to fail under (4). ie, it fails not at the annotation-of-a-single-sample-in-isolation stage, but in the pre-meditated-compendium-cum-reproduction for profit stage.
You Tube, for the most part is a different example. They have a reasonable expectation that their content is intentionally UGC (original) or short-form (sampled) or a montage (also sampled, with transformation). The are multiple cases of ex-ante reasonable fair-use. So they can claim safe harbour.
Right now, ex-ante, that would be a tough argument for Rap Genius (given Harry Potter example). Their protoype looks to a plain observer like re-purposing in full the material (Annotated Linked Article), as a base upon which to add XYZ. Just like the NYTimes has to license a photo to annotate a story (they cant claim the story is annotating the photo=fair use), or else Getty images would complain. etc.
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Also, I do think you need to start with the presumption of a for profit business. If Wikipedia (or its foundation, etc) did a non-commercial version, I think then the analysis would change, fairly. The combination of extant materials/prototypes/early versioning, and their VC backing, etc. seem to put them in a different game.
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Each person in the chain only posted a small part of the work, and each post includes annotations and commentary that would seem to grant it fair use protections.
Is likely going to fail under (4). ie, it fails not at the annotation-of-a-single-sample-in-isolation stage, but in the pre-meditated-compendium-cum-reproduction for profit stage.
You Tube, for the most part is a different example. They have a reasonable expectation that their content is intentionally UGC (original) or short-form (sampled) or a montage (also sampled, with transformation). The are multiple cases of ex-ante reasonable fair-use. So they can claim safe harbour.
Right now, ex-ante, that would be a tough argument for Rap Genius (given Harry Potter example). Their protoype looks to a plain observer like re-purposing in full the material (Annotated Linked Article), as a base upon which to add XYZ. Just like the NYTimes has to license a photo to annotate a story (they cant claim the story is annotating the photo=fair use), or else Getty images would complain. etc.
[edit]
Also, I do think you need to start with the presumption of a for profit business. If Wikipedia (or its foundation, etc) did a non-commercial version, I think then the analysis would change, fairly. The combination of extant materials/prototypes/early versioning, and their VC backing, etc. seem to put them in a different game.