Copyright

The United States Code Title 17 Section 107 (U.S.C. 17§ 107) codifies the limitations on exclusive rights and specifies that "fair use" is not an infringement of copyright.  This use, notwithstanding the provisions of Sections 106 and 106A, allows for legal reproduction of copyrighted works for purposes such as “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research,” and apply directly to nonprofit, academic institutions. 

Fair Use (§107)

Fair use is an exemption built into copyright law that limits the exclusive rights of the copyright holder to allow certain uses without having to seek permission.  Unfortunately, the law does not provide a straightforward delineation of what IS and what IS NOT legal. Instead, the law supplies four factors that must be used to evaluate your intended use of copyrighted material. You must perform a fair use evaluation each time you want to invoke fair use. A helpful way to look at the fair use evaluation process, is to conduct the evaluation as if you are building a legal argument. In court, judges would weigh the use of copyrighted material against these four factors when deciding whether or not the specific use of copyrighted material would constitute an copyright infringement. 

Four Factors

• the purpose and character of your use
• the nature of the copyrighted work
• the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
• the effect of the use upon the potential market

Click here for a detailed discussion of the "Four Factors" (begins on page 9) 

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries

The Fair Use Checklist

The Checklist and this introduction is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution License with attribution to the original creators of the checklist Kenneth D. Crews (formerly of Columbia University) and Dwayne K. Butler (University of Louisville).

Creative Commons License