The 5th Circuit gave #FairUseWeek a fitting climax on Friday by affirming a district court opinion tossing troll Keith Bell’s lawsuit and ordering him to pay attorneys’ fees for the public school he sued over a tweet. This is great news for so many reasons. 1/x 
First, it continues to build the dossier against Bell, whose disgraceful shakedown scheme has cost public schools and non-profits tens of thousands of dollars in needless settlements. As more and more courts see him for what he is, more victims will be emboldened to defy him.
Second, it also builds the growing body of case law supporting early dismissal on a 12b6 motion for clear cut fair uses, together with attorney fee awards to defendants. This will make it easier for folks to ward off other trolls who try to monetize irrational copyright demands.
Third, it further discredits the @Unite4Copyright folks, who relied on Bell and other trolls in their bid to revoke sovereign immunity. They told the @CopyrightOffice with a straight face that Bell was a victim of greedy schools when the opposite was true. The Office was wise …
@Unite4Copyright @CopyrightOffice to withhold its endorsement from the warped maximalist view exemplified by Bell and others, a view that is not aging well in the courts. Fourth, it’s a victory for the common sense idea that stopping harmless good faith non-profit uses is not what copyright is about.
@CopyrightOffice In weighing the four factors, the 5th Cir rightly emphasized whether this use was either a) part of a traditional/reasonable/etc market for the work or b) likely to provide that market with a harmful substitute for the original. The biggest challenge to the credibility of ©️…
@CopyrightOffice Has been the overenforcement of copyright in contexts where people reasonably believe that what they are doing is not piracy but ordinary nonprofit engagement with culture: YouTube takedowns, nasty letters, and other threats over criticism, comment, memes, and fan engagement.
The 5th Cir tells us in this case that even non-transformative activity is protected in contexts where there is no actual harm to any reasonable market. Copyright protects the right to sell and license your work in a market. It shouldn’t let you reach into ordinary life and
Terrorize people who reuse your work for harmless non commercial speech and expression.
Full opinion here: govinfo.gov/app/details/US…
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