Faculty Services

The Fair Use Doctrine provides for limited use of copyrighted materials for educational and research purposes without permission from the copyright holders.

In accordance with the fair use doctrine, one has the right to use another’s copyrighted work without permission in a way that adds new meaning or purpose. 

Courts consider four factors in determining whether a use is fair. These four factors are:

1. the purpose and character of the use; including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes

2. the nature of the copyrighted work; usually factual or nonfiction is more likely to be considered fair, versus creative works, except for criticism 

3. the amount and substantiality of the use; and

4. the effect on the market for the underlying work; or impact on sales of the original work.

It is important to note that none of these factors alone is definitive. All four must be considered. Also, there are no definitive guidelines outside of what has been determined by Courts on specific cases.

Use of materials for teaching, research, criticism, commentary, or scholarship could be argued for Factor 1 (purpose and character) as fair use, if the other factors also apply. 

Useful links:

FAQs for Professors: http://archive.cmsimpact.org/libraries/faq-professors

Code of Best Practices: https://www.arl.org/storage/documents/publications/code-of-best-practices-fair-use.pdf

Fair Use Evaluator: https://librarycopyright.net/resources/fairuse/index.php

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

Fair Use Cases: Index of cases by the U.S. Copyright Office: https://copyright.gov/fair-use/ 

Watch the following video by Harvard Law School's The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

This video was retrieved from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.