I would feel the same confidence regarding a 30s clip of a movie. That is to say, I would not feel confident at all, but that has nothing to do with the law and all to do how it is interpreted. I do however think that 30s clip of a 3hr movie, or 0.3% of the source code for a game should be small enough that fair use arguments can be made.
While github is often used as a publishing tool, it is also commonly used as a place where work-in-progress is placed. Thus, if someone wanted to create a commentary about a piece of copyrighted material (say, the DRM part of a game), I would personally consider copying the related code into a github repository for refinement to be fair use. So long the four-factor balancing test is fulfilled, why limit the available tools? Should the workplace where such refinement is taking place be limited only as private repositories where each party has a copyright license?
I would also like to note that nowhere in the law does it say that fair use must minimize their usage of the copyrighted work. The law says under its four-factor balancing test:
the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to
the copyrighted work as a whole.
How it is interpreted has changed widely in the last 15 years. Some talk about the minimal necessary amount for his or her intended use. Other talks about "the heart of the work". For a time, De minimis was considered, through was later reversed in 2005.
While github is often used as a publishing tool, it is also commonly used as a place where work-in-progress is placed. Thus, if someone wanted to create a commentary about a piece of copyrighted material (say, the DRM part of a game), I would personally consider copying the related code into a github repository for refinement to be fair use. So long the four-factor balancing test is fulfilled, why limit the available tools? Should the workplace where such refinement is taking place be limited only as private repositories where each party has a copyright license?
I would also like to note that nowhere in the law does it say that fair use must minimize their usage of the copyrighted work. The law says under its four-factor balancing test:
How it is interpreted has changed widely in the last 15 years. Some talk about the minimal necessary amount for his or her intended use. Other talks about "the heart of the work". For a time, De minimis was considered, through was later reversed in 2005.