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Copyright & Privacy

What is Fair Use?

Fair use is a legal doctrine that recognizes certain uses of copyrighted works benefit society without causing undue harm to copyright holders. 

Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides a framework for determining fair use and identifies certain types of uses (ex. criticism, teaching, scholarship, and research) as activities that may qualify as fair use. Not all uses for these purposes are automatically considered fair use.

Fair use is purposefully vague and flexible to account for unique circumstances and technological changes.

Four Factors

There are no absolute rules as to how much of a copyrighted work may be copied and still be considered fair use. When determining whether a use case qualifies as fair use, there are four factors to consider, and all four must be considered. It is not enough to determine the work is being used for teaching at a nonprofit institution and disregard the other factors. The factors are: 

  • ​Purpose & Character of Use: Is the item being used for teaching or scholarship? Is it being used by a nonprofit institution? 
  • Nature of the Work: Nonfiction vs. fiction/creative, published vs. unpublished. You have more leeway to copy from factual works than creative works, and from published works than unpublished works. 
  • Amount & Substantiality of the Portion Used: The less you use, the more likely you can justify fair use. Note: there are no finite, recommended percentages for this factor. 
  • Effect on the Market: Would the usage deprive the copyright holder of profit from the sale of the item? Could your use replace the potential sale of an item?