Copyright for Literate Robots

Citation: James Grimmelmann Copyright for Literate Robots.
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Copyright for Literate Robots
Wikidata (metadata): Q108840126
Download: https://james.grimmelmann.net/files/articles/copyright-for-literate-robots.pdf
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Summary

Argues that to understand why reading by computers has not typically been subject to copyright, as decided in various US court cases, to consider the romantic reader, who engages with expression created by the romantic author. Computers are not such a reader.

"When you combine nonexpressive uses and bulk copying, you obtain a form of reading that can only be carried out by robots. The idea of transformative fair use has itself been transformed to deal with such reading."

This is an odd result, and worth considering further, not because it is the wrong result, but because it asks again the question of what copyright is for, and because computer readers will only become more important.