Research Guides: Copyright and Fair Use Guide: Fair Use

What is Fair Use?

Fair use is a statutory exception to the copyright holder's bundle of exclusive rights. It allows for the unlicensed (that is, without permission or payment of royalty) use of a copyrighted work where the balance of several factors weighs in favor of such use. Four of these factors are specifically enumerated in the statute. Application of fair use requires a factual analysis of these four factors as applied to the facts of the proposed use. Although no single factor is determinative, recent court decisions reveal that transformative use is an important consideration as is the potential harm to the market for the copyrighted work.

The four statutory factors of fair use are:

The purpose and character of the proposed use
The nature of the work being used
The amount of the work being used
The effect of the use upon the market for the copyrighted work

Fair Use Myths & Facts

Infographic: Fair Use Myths & Facts

Fair Use Tools and Resources

Codes of Best Practices

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries
This Code of Best Practices identifies eight scenarios identified by the academic and research library community where fair use principles commonly apply and steps libraries should take to help assure fair use.
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation
The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation provides clear guidance on the legality of archiving legacy software to ensure continued access to digital files of all kinds and to illuminate the history of technology.
Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use
List of Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use for topics such as OpenCourseWare, Online Video, Images for Teaching, Research, and Study, and Orphan Works for Libraries and Archives.

Indexes

U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index
The Fair Use Index tracks a variety of judicial decisions to help both lawyers and non-lawyers better understand the types of uses courts have previously determined to be fair—or not fair.

Evaluators, Quizzes, and Checklists

Fair Use Evaluator
A tool developed by the ALA Copyright Advisory Network to assist libraries in evaluating whether a proposed use is fair.
Fair Use Quiz
The quiz, created by MIT Libraries, is designed to help users better understand the core concepts of copyright law’s “fair use” provision.
Fair Use Checklist
Fair use checklists exist in several variations used by libraries. This version was created by the Copyright Advisory Office at Columbia University.
Thinking Through Fair Use
Interactive fair use checklist, from the University of Minnesota, to assist with fair use analysis.