Fair use in copyright law is the flexible guideline that enables people to use copyrighted works, without asking permission, in ways that are fair — for purposes such as “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research” (Taken from the “preamble” to 17 U.S.C. 107.) — or parodies, critiques, reviews, search engines, text and data mining, disability access, and many other uses.
Educational uses are particularly favored as fair uses, but not any use “for education” is automatically fair. Fair use always requires someone to consider four factors — How are you using the work? What kind of work is it? How much of the original work are you using? What effect might your use have on the market for the original work? (Paraphrases of the four “factors” in 17 U.S.C. 107.)
The Libraries offer education services about fair use, and are happy to meet with you to discuss your fair use questions.
We also offer a number of fact sheets:
- Fair Use Overview
- Fair Use Explained
- Fair Use Checklist (under revision)
- Fair Use Checklists, Tools, and Best Practice Guides
- Fair Use and Online Teaching – Other Resources
The term "fair use" is also used in trademark law to describe uses of trademarks. Sometimes, a work can be both trademarked and copyrighted!