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Copyright and Fair Use Guide

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:

  1. The purpose and character of the proposed use
  2. The nature of the work being used
  3. The amount of the work being used
  4. The effect of the use upon the market for the copyrighted work

Fair Use Myths & Facts

Fair Use Tools and Resources

Codes of Best Practices

 

Indexes

 

Evaluators, Quizzes, and Checklists

 

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