What is Fair Use and Why Should I
Care?
Fair use is the
right to reuse existing copyrighted materials without permission under certain
circumstances. It is very flexible. If you have ever written a book review
or used a movie clip in class to illustrate a point, you have relied on fair
use. So have writers of parody songs, documentary filmmakers, museums,
publishers who translate works into Braille, and even Google.
To decide whether a use is fair, you need to weigh 4
factors:
- · The purpose and character of the use
- · The nature of the copyrighted work
- · The portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
- · The effect of the use upon the potential market
You can use a fair
use checklist to help you judge whether a use is likely to be fair. The
following catchphrase is also a good rule of thumb: Use
fairly. Not too much. Have reasons. Ask yourself: Am
I doing something new with this? Or am I just copying the work for its same
purpose? And does the amount I’m using make sense for what I’m trying to do?
There are a lot of misconceptions
about fair use, but it is an
important right to protect. To learn more, click on the links in this
article or follow Fair Use
Week on Twitter.
