- The current copyright law (Title
17, Section 107, U.S. Code) gives the owner of a copyright the exclusive
right to reproduce and distribute a work, with very few exceptions. The
most important exception to this exclusive right is usually referred to
as "the fair use exception."
The fair use exception permits the reproduction of a small portion of a copyrighted work without the copyright owner's permission, but only under very limited circumstances.
The purpose is to allow students, teachers, researchers, scholars, reporters and critics the right to refer to a copyrighted work in their own scholarship, teaching, articles and critiques.
There's no one right answer as to what constitutes a "fair use" of a copyrighted work. The answer varies from situation to situation.
The criteria as designated in the law for using copyrighted materials under the fair use exception are governed by four principles.
| Principles | Example | |
|
|
The purpose and character of the use. | Is it a commercial or non-commercial
use of the copyrighted work? |
| 2 | The nature of the copyrighted work. | What kind of work is it? |
| 3 | The "substantiality" of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. | How much is used and what is the relationship of the portion to the entire copyrighted work? |
| 4 | The effect of the use upon the potential for, or the value of, the copyrighted work. | Will the use reduce the salability of the copyrighted work? |
