jaapv
RFF Sponsoring Member.
Freedom of expression is a Constitutional right. Fair use isn't. There is no fair use provision in the Constitution. Try to find it. You won't. Fair use is an exception to an exclusive statutory right, namely, copyright. You are mixing up fair use and freedom of expression. They are not the same thing. They are only related insofar as they fall under the broad umbrella of communication. Lots and lots of things promote communication and sometimes freedom of expression. It doesn't mean you have a Constitutional right to all of them. It also doesn't mean that no contract can ever abridge communication. A Leica M10 would very distinctly and beautifully promote my freedom of expression, but people would look at me like a total fool if I demanded a Leica M10 as a "Constitutional right".
Think about this: Reid asks subscribers to sign a nondisclosure agreement. If your argument about Fair Use being a Constitutional right were correct, no nondisclosure agreement would ever be valid or enforceable. And yet people sign and rely on nondisclosure agreements every day, in numerous fields and endeavors, and for numerous reasons. That's a fact. In other words, people don't sign nondisclosure agreements and then turn around and say Fair Use gives them a "free pass" to renege on the same agreements. That doesn't work because that would make all nondisclosure agreements absolutely worthless and void from the start. You know (or should know) that Fair Use doesn't work that way. If you did some research on nondisclosure agreements, you would find that plenty of them have been ruled to be valid and enforceable.
Actually Sean does not even ask to sign an NDA. He kindly requests subscribers of his site not to undermine his livelihood by plastering the results of his hard work all over the Internet. So far his readers have -in the main- honoured that request. I like to think that Leica owners will continue to show that decency.