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Copyright and Creative Commons

What is Fair Use?

Fair use is the right, in some circumstances, to quote copyrighted material without asking permission or paying for it. Fair use enables the creation of new culture, and keeps current copyright holders from being private censors. (Center for Social Media)

The Four Factors

FOUR FACTOR TEST FOR FAIR USE

1. For what purpose would the work be used?

  • Nonprofit, educational, scholarly or research use favors fair use
  • Transformative use (repurposing, recontextualizing) favors fair use

2. What is the nature is of the work to be used?

  • Published, fact-based content favors fair use

3. How much of the work would be used?

  • Small or less significant amounts favor fair use
  • Using only the amount needed for a given purpose favors fair use
  • Note: an image or figure would commonly be considered a work in and of itself, weighing against fair use; or could summarize the key point of an article, also weighing against fair use.

4. What effect on the market for that work would the use have?

  • If there would be no effect, or it is not possible to obtain permission to use the work, this favors fair use

Applying this 4-factor test is not always a clear-cut process, and all four factors need to be weighed in individual cases to decide whether a fair use exemption seems to apply to a proposed reuse.

A Window on Fair Use

Explains the concept of “Fair Use” under US copyright law and offers relevant tools to support fair use analysis; and provides information on finding images that may be reused without permission. Produced by MIT Libraries. Source URL: http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/4882

MIT Tech TV

Fair Use Resources