Library Guides: Copyright Laws and Guidelines: Fair Use Guidelines

Fair Use Guidelines: Overview

Copyright and Fair Use

"The goal of copyright law and policy is to foster the progress of science, the creation of culture, and the dissemination of ideas. Its best-known feature is protection of owners’ rights. But copying, quoting, and generally re-using existing cultural and scientific material can be a critically important part of generating new research and culture and promoting intellectual exchange.”

~Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries.pdf (Association of Research Libraries)

Risk Assessment

These are just guidelines. When using them, you are always making a risk assessment. They were written with the intent to be flexible, which can be both helpful and a hindrance. However, in consulting these guidelines, the intent of ‘good faith’ goes a long way. While attribution is not necessarily part of these guidelines, it shows good faith to do so whenever possible.

Legal Document

Fair Use Guidelines (Copyright Law, Section 107)

Tools

Fair Use Evaluator (Michael Brewer & ALA Office for Information Technology Policy)

Fair Use Checklist (Columbia University)

Fair Use Infographic (Association of Research Libraries)

Purpose of the Use

Purpose of the Use

Favoring Fair Use

Teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use)
Research
Scholarship
Nonprofit educational institution
Criticism
Comment
News reporting
Non-commercial use, including personal use
Transformative use
- Parody, scholarship, criticism, commentary

Opposing Fair Use

Commercial use
Entertainment use
Profiting from use

Amount of the Work Used

Amount of the Work Used

Favoring Fair Use

Proportionally small quantity used
Amount used is appropriate to the educational objective of the course

Opposing Fair Use

Larger portions or the entire work
Portion used is central to or the "heart of the work"

*Please note, the common 10% rule is not the ultimate test.

Nature of the Original Work

Nature of the Original Work

Favoring Fair Use

Published works
Factual or nonfiction based works
How relevant the work is to the educational objectives of the course

Opposing Fair Use

Unpublished works
Highly creative works
Fiction

Impact on the Market for the Original Work

Impact on the Market for the Original Work

Favoring Fair Use

User (institution) owns lawfully purchased or acquired copy of the original work
Only one or a few copies are made
One-time use
Use stimulates the market for the original work
No way to pay or to seek permission
Difficult to redistribute, or to make additional copies of the product of your use

Opposing Fair Use

Use of work directly substitutes for a sale of the work
Many copies are made
Repeated or long-term use
Significantly impairs market for copyrighted work
Easy to redistribute, or to make additional copies of the product of your use (i.e. digital file, open access online use)