Copyright: Fair Use

Fair use is a provision in the copyright law that allows the use of copyrighted material for certain purposes under certain circumstances. Columbia University's Fair Use pages offer a detailed explanation of this concept.

Although we cannot assume all uses will be fair, as educators and students at a non-profit institution, we can take advantage of fair use if we make a good faith effort to evaluate fair use based on the four factors.

"Like any exercise of expressive freedom, taking advantage of fair use in education and libraries depends on the application of general principles to specific situations." - ARL's Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries

Do:

• Exercise your fair use rights
• Use the checklist to evaluate fair use
• Link to material rather than copying
• Get permission to make copies or perform a copyrighted work (unless fair use applies)
• Require students to purchase materials if permission cannot be obtained
• Use public domain
• Show films in educational settings, such as classrooms
• Perform a work in a classroom as part of a teaching activity

Don't:

• Assume all uses by educators are "fair use"
• Assume commonly cited fair use guidelines are absolute legal boundaries
• Copy materials when there is a reasonable alternative, such as purchasing them or getting permission
• Show films publicly with open invitations to the community without public performance rights

Image from the page "Fair Use" by Georgetown University Library, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 

Use one of the following checklists to evaluate fair use: