Anybody that tells you that Laws are Black & White have their heads in the sand. Laws are based and decided upon the interpretation of words. It’s that interpretation that makes the area of deciding on what the Law means very grey. A classic example of this is laid out in a great article at the DigitalJournalist. Written by Mickey H. Osterreicher, Esq. and Donald Winslow reporting, they highlight the back and forth appeals and reversals that have plagued the opposing parties in a pair of lawsuits against the National Geographic Society for copyright infringement.
The article starts by pointing out that:
(The US Supreme Court) ….”let stand a lower court ruling in one of the cases holding that current copyright law permits a publisher to create revisions of existing works and/or to reproduce a collective work in a new format…”
