It's often thought that "fair use" covers any sufficiently short selection of another's words. But this is urban legend. There is no such principle in law. A cr

It's often thought that "fair use" covers any sufficiently short selection of another's words. But this is urban legend. There is no such principle in law. A creative joke is fully copyrighted and not subject to fair use even if it's just several words long. Even the de minimis doctrine for music sampling has now collapsed. More clarity about what counts as publication would be pleasant. If three friends post something they heard at a comedy club and discuss it and six others read that; but hundreds could have found it - should that count as publication? So far, Facebook seems to be saying no. And the patent office? We don't know.