Research Guides: Fair Use and Copyright: Fair Use

About This Page

There are many great resources to help you understand the concepts of Fair Use and how to apply them.

Fair Use Toolkit

Fair Use Evaluator
This tool allows you to work through the process of making a determination of fair use by using the "four factors" as a guide and a color coding scale.
Thinking Through Fair Use - University of Minnesota checklist
This tool includes a checklist, which can be helpful to see if you can claim fair use.

Discipline-Specific Best Practices

Many organizations have created their own best practices guidelines to address their own disciplines. Here you will find links to several discipline-specific guides to adhering to Fair Use guidelines:

What is Fair Use?

In determining fair use, you should weigh the benefit to society against the author's reward. Here are the four factors that can determine fair use and some questions to think about:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
      Is it a transformative? Are you using the material in a new way?
      Is the use for teaching or scholarship?
      What is the intent behind the usage?

2. The nature of the copyrighted work
    Is it a work of fiction or non-fiction?
      Is it educational or commercial?
      Is the work factual or creative?

3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
      How much of the work do you really need?
      Are you using the heart of the work?

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
Would the publisher/author be harmed financially because this would replace sales of their work?
How would this use affect the author if everyone did this?

Fair Use
See the official site on copyright.gov

Fair Use Resources

ARL Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries
This guide is extremely helpful to librarians and faculty in understanding what libraries should and should not do using real examples of applying fair use.
Fair Use - Association of Research Libraries
ARL, who created the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, (see below) has created a fair use page as part of their copyright information, which includes information about some of the court cases that are in the news today.
Stanford University Library's Copyright and Fair Use Overview
This site explains the four factors and discusses recent fair use cases and lawsuits.
Fair Use - Center for Media and Social Impact
This site has links to many of the best practices you will see on the following page, but it also has a blog and links to other helpful resources such as teaching tools, programs, and events about fair use.