The conflict between freedom of expression and copyrights is the reason the "fair use" doctrine exists. It is essential for freedom of speech to be able to sometimes use copyrighted works without the permission of the original author, because otherwise it is very difficult to criticize those works and have an informed public debate.
What I don't understand is why we accept quoting of paragraphs of text without permission to be fair use, but copyright holders flip out when someone quotes an audio or video clip without permission. The medium should not make a difference, and if we have fewer freedoms in new media than we had with the written word, then creativity and democracy will suffer.
