Research Guides: Copyright: Fair Use

Understanding Fair Use

Before you can take advantage of fair use, you need to understand it. The following links will help you make sense of the best practices and factors involved in fair use.

Understanding Fair Use
From University of Minnesota Libraries.
Fair Use in Education and Research
Columbia University explains fair use, the TEACH Act, and other copyright issues.
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries
By the Association of Research Libraries.
Fair Use Teaching Tools
From the Center for Social Media: "The Center for Social Media has created a set of teaching tools for professors who are interested in teaching their students about fair use. The tools include powerpoints with lecture notes, guidelines for in-class discussions and exercises, assignments and grading rubrics."

Fair Use Evaluator

The ALA Office for Information Technology Policy created a Fair Use Evaluator to help you determine whether your proposed use of copyrighted materials falls within the guidelines of Fair Use.

Copyright Office - Fair Use

Section 107 of the U.S. copyright law describes the four factors to consider when determining Fair Use:

The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
The nature of the copyrighted work
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

Read the full description on the U.S. Copyright office website.