The goal of the Index is to make the principles and application of fair use more accessible and understandable to the public by presenting a searchable database of court opinions, including by category and type of use (e.g., music, internet/digitization, parody).

4 days ago - Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests of copyright holders with the public interest in the wider distribution and use of creative works by allowing a defense to copyright infringement claims for certain limited uses that might otherwise be considered ...

If you use a copyrighted work without authorization, the owner may be entitled to bring an infringement action against you. There are circumstances under the fair use doctrine where a quote or a sample may be used without permission. However, in cases of doubt, the Copyright Office recommends ...

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

Fair Use is a legally permissible use of copyrighted material for specific purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. For more information about fair use, see: http://ogc.harvard.edu/pages/copyright-and-fair-use .

November 12, 2024 - Fair use is an affirmative defense that can be raised in response to claims by a copyright owner that a person is infringing a copyright. Fair use permits a party to use a copyrighted work without the copyright owner’s permission for purposes ...

Copyright law protects original works of expression—including literary, musical, and pictorial works as well as movies and other audiovisual works. Fair use is a legal doctrine that permits the unlicensed use of such works in limited circumstances.

October 7, 2026 - Unauthorized use of another’s copyrighted work is copyright infringement. “Fair use” is an important defense that sometimes applies to claims of copyright infringement.

Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.

January 28, 2021 - Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.

May 2, 2024 - Section 107 of the Copyright Act gives examples of purposes that are favored by fair use: “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, [and] research.” Use for one of these purposes ...

May 11, 2026 - Fair Use allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission for certain purposes, including commentary, criticism, news reporting, scholarship, and parody. Unfortunately, there are no hard-and-fast laws or rules that define what qualifies as fair use.

Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows the use of limited portions of copyrighted material under certain circumstances without getting permission from the copyright owner or paying any license fees. Fair use applies to all types of works, including text, images, video, and music.

For example, you may read a copyrighted article and appropriate its ideas or the facts it conveys into your own work without violating the copyright. However, unless fair use or another exception to copyright protection applies, you may not reproduce the actual text of the paper without permission.

May 27, 2026 - You need to evaluate your use each time you are reproducing copyrighted material — to show in your class, to hand out copies, to include in your writing, or to post on your course website. Fair use is codified at 17 U.S.C.

2 weeks ago - It supports freedom of expression, promotes education, and fosters creativity by permitting the use of copyrighted works for criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Fair use is determined by a four-factor test, including the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount of the portion used, and the effect of the use upon the potential market for the copyrighted work.

The policy behind copyright law is not simply to protect the rights of those who produce content, but to "promote the progress of science and useful arts." U.S. Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 8. Because allowing authors to enforce their copyrights in all cases would actually hamper this end, first the courts and then Congress have adopted the fair use doctrine in order to permit uses of copyrighted materials considered beneficial to society, many of which are also entitled to First Amendment protection.

3 weeks ago - You can evaluate your own use of a work using the same criteria to determine is your use of a work is probably a Fair Use. You an use the Checklist Document in the column to the lower left. Make sure to include the Copyright Disclaimer for Fair Use in works that you use.

1 month ago - The doctrine is codified in Section 107 of the Copyright Act, which lists various types of reproduction that the law considers fair. Typically, fair uses include criticism, comment, research, scholarship, news reporting, and teaching.

This page explains how copyright law enables people to use works that already exist. The information focuses on one of the main use provisions in United States copyright law, called “fair use.”