The Messy Intersection Of Copyright, ‘Fair Use’, Books, Film And Google

Under the doctrine of fair use, a writer may freely quote a limited amount of copyrighted material. Documentary filmmakers, in an analogous situation, must get licenses for even small amounts of archival footage. Once those licenses expire, renewing them is complicated and expensive, but without such renewals, a documentary cannot legally be distributed or even restored. Could the Google Books-Authors Guild settlement push nonfiction books into a similar limbo?