Fair use is a statutory exception to the copyright holder's bundle of exclusive rights. It allows for the unlicensed (that is, without permission or payment of royalty) use of a copyrighted work where the balance of several factors weighs in favor of such use. Four of these factors are specifically enumerated in the statute. Application of fair use requires a factual analysis of these four factors as applied to the facts of the proposed use. Although no single factor is determinative, recent court decisions reveal that transformative use is an important consideration as is the potential harm to the market for the copyrighted work.
The four statutory factors of fair use are:
Several factual inquiries drive analysis of each of the four factors. The resources in this Toolkit can help libraries understand and conduct these inquiries. Several libraries have also created excellent guides to understanding and applying the four factors:
A timeline of the events in the copyright lawsuit against GSU, including links to court opinions and news coverage of the case.
From Fair Use Week, an examination of 12 common myths about the application of fair use and the reality of fair use law.
FAQ from ARL on the application of fair use and the DMCA to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
Article published in the Connecticut Law Review by Brandon Butler (Director of Public Policy, University of Virginia Libraries) on the current state of transformative fair use. See also the related webinar at https://vimeo.com/162858085.
This link will take you to the ARL Policy Notes blog for a list of posts that have been tagged as "fair use." Current and comprehensive coverage on fair use jurisprudence as applies to libraries.