the one thing no-one has managed to get changed is that educational use, rather broadly defined, is an absolute defense to unlicensed copying and distribution.

Except... it's not. There's a whole lot of sort of sociological (for lack of a better term) reasons why stuff like that doesn't end up in the court system, for the most part, but there are limits to educational fair use, and any publisher will tell you that. The legislative history of the copyright acts will tell you that, too.

This is an area I'm doing some work in - I'd be very curious to know what you're basing your statement on.