CONFU (Conference on Fair Use)

Copyright Office asked dozens of organizations (commercial publishers, librarians, educators, etc.) to attempt to agree to guidelines on Fair Use.

Conference held at various times in mid to late 1990's. End result is a set of guidelines that exist, but that did not receive the endorement of the majority of participants. Copyright owners fought hard to protect copyright; copyright users fought hard to expand Fair User rights.

There was not even agreement as to whether the guidelines were being designed to be a "safe harbor" (minimum acceptable behavior) or the "edge of the envelope" (maximum acceptable behavior).

Final resulting document proscribes things such as:

This is at odds with the admittedly frustratingly ambigous, but ultimately flexible, language of the Fair Use provision of the Copyright Act.