LibGuides: Copyright Guide: What is Fair Use?

What is Fair Use?

Fair use is a concept embedded in U.S. law that recognizes that certain uses of copyright-protected works do not require permission from the copyright holder. (See Title 17, section 107)

The following four factors are used to determine if a use is fair:

The purpose of the use
The nature of the copyrighted work
The amount of the material used (the greater the amount copied, the less likely it is fair use)
The effect of use on the potential market for or value of the work

Fair Use Tools

Fair Use Checklist
The Fair Use Checklist and variations on it have been widely used for many years to help educators, librarians, lawyers, and many other users of copyrighted works determine whether their activities are within the limits of fair use under U.S. copyright law (Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act).
Fair Use Evaluator
This tool helps users collect, organize, and document the information they may need to support a fair use claim, and provides a time-stamped PDF document for the users’ records. Developed by the American Library Association, Office for Information Technology Policy.