LibGuides: Copyright: Fair Use

Fair Use Factors

There's no one answer as to what constitutes "fair use" of a particular copyrighted work. The answer varies from situation to situation, and only a court can make a definitive decision.

Four factors are considered in all fair use evaluations:

Purpose and character of the use (educational or commercial)

Nature of the work (factual or creative)

Amount/substantiality of the work (how much of the total work and is it the "heart" of the work?)

Impact on market (financial loss to copyright holder)

These four factors are not meant to be exclusive and must be examined jointly.

Fair Use websites for further information

For additional Fair Use information, check these sites.

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

Fair Use -- Columbia Copyright Advisory Office
Fair Use for Academic & Research Libraries
Association of College & Research Libraries 2012 Code of Best Practices(available for download) and other information about Fair Use in the academic environment.
Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials
from the University of Texas
Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center

Lamar University Fair Use Checklist

Fair Use Checklist

Lamar University

Theresa S. Hefner-Babb, Ed.D., Copyright Librarian

http://lamar.libapps.com/Copyright

Name: ________________________________________________________________________

Institution: _____________________________________________________________________

Project: ________________________________________________________________________

Date: _________________________________________________________________________

Prepared by: ____________________________________________________________________

Purpose

Favoring Fair Use	Opposing Fair Use
Teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use)	Commercial activity
Research	Profiting from the use
Scholarship	Entertainment
Nonprofit educational institution	Bad-faith behavior
Criticism	Denying credit to original author
Comment
News reporting
Transformative or productive use (changes the work for new utility)
Restricted access (to students or other appropriate group)
Parody

Nature

Favoring Fair Use	Opposing Fair Use
Published work	Unpublished work
Factual or nonfiction based	Highly creative work (art, music, novels, films, plays)
Important to favored educational objectives	Fiction

Amount

Favoring Fair Use	Opposing Fair Use
Small quantity	Large portion or whole work used
Portion used is not central or significant to entire work	Portion used is central to or “heart of the to entire work
Amount is appropriate for favored educational purpose

Effect

Favoring Fair Use	Opposing Fair Use
User owns lawfully purchased or acquired copy of original work	Could replace sale of copyrighted work
One or few copies made	Significantly impairs market or potential market for copyrighted work or derivative
No significant effect on the market or potential market for copyrighted work	Reasonably available licensing mechanism for use of the copyrighted work
No similar product marketed by the copyright holder	Affordable permission available for using work
Lack of licensing mechanism	Numerous copies made
	You made it accessible on the Web or in other public forum
	Repeated or long-term use

Fair Use Checklist from Columbia University Copyright Office. upd 051408.

https://copyright.columbia.edu/content/dam/copyright/Precedent%20Docs/fairusechecklist.pdf

A Fair(y) Use Tale

Professor Eric Fadden of Bucknell University provides this humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles.

Fair Use Explained

Under the “fair use” rule of copyright law, a person may make limited use of another author’s work without asking permission.

Important Notice: Use of copyrighted materials for papers, theses, classroom presentations and other academic purposes does not mean that use is automatically fair use. Permission may still be required.

Here are some general Fair Use guidelines for research/teaching.

How much can I use?

A single chapter from a book
A single article from a journal issue or newspaper
A short story, essay, or poem from an individual work.
A chart, diagram, graph, drawing, cartoon, or picture from a book, journal, magazine, or newspaper.

Best practice for distributing copies:

Copies should not substitute for the purchase of books, journals, and etc.
Always credit the source.
Provide a copyright notice on the first page of the copied material (possible wording: "Notice: This material is subject to the copyright law of the United States).
Provide only one copy per student.
Copying works for multiple semesters requires permission from the copyright owner.

Best practice for Internet sources: