Copy of Copyright & Fair Use

Fair use allows for limited reproduction of copyrighted works without payment or permission. Fair use is codified in section 107 of US copyright law.  Reproduction of a copyrighted work with no prior permission may be fair in cases of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

The major challenge with fair use is that it is not strictly defined.  There are, however, four guiding "Factors of Fair Use" that we can use when making decisions about incorporating course content.

Purpose:

Is it for commercial or educational purposes?

Is it transformative or is it basically a replication of the original?

Nature:

Is it a factual, non-fiction work or is it a creative, fictional work?

Is it published, or unpublished?

Amount:

Are you using the whole thing or just a portion?

Is the portion you are using central or peripheral to the work?

Effect:

Are you using it in order to avoid purchasing the original?

Does your use somehow impair market value?

Teaching

• Analyzing an excerpt of a copyrighted work in class.
• Uploading a copyright-protected article to the course management system for students for a specific amount of time and specific educational goal.

Criticism

• Quoting and citing published texts in a critical paper. 

Research

• Quoting and citing published research studies and articles in a literature review. 
• Using an idea from a published work and building upon it.

The following resources can help you determine whether your use is fair.