Napster also tried to deploy “fair use” as a defence in America—and failed. That is not to say that the outcome will be the same this time.

The main arguments around “fair use” are fascinating. To borrow from a masterclass on the topic by Mark Lemley and Bryan Casey in the Texas Law Review, a journal, use of copyrighted works is considered fair when it serves a valuable social purpose, the source material is transformed from the original and it does not affect the copyright owners’ core market.