Appropriation as Legitimate Practice: Rethinking Fair Use

This year my colleague Genelle Belmas and I collaborated on a presentation for the annual Popular Culture Association conference, titled Appropriation as Legitimate Practice: Rethinking Fair Use in a Networked Society. Genelle delivered our talk in Washington DC while I stayed home with my five-week old twin newborns (!). We suggest the four-pronged fair use “test” does not accurately assist a judge or jury with little or no previous visual communication knowledge to understand the nuances of appropriation art.