About the Library: Fair Use?

Fair Use is a provision of Copyright Law that allows Academic Institutions to use with reason works otherwise protected by Copyright Law. 

Fair use can allow us to clip, quote, scan, share, and make many other common uses of protected works. But not everything is within fair use. The Checklist in this guide can be helpful for considering if your usage of a work falls into Fair Use but it is good to know that Fair Use depends on a reasoned and balanced application of four factors:

• the purpose of the use; for example, academic purposes is generally acceptable.

• the nature of the work used; Factual or informational is often considered more acceptable than creative works

• the amount used; in general less than 10% of a book, a brief film clip, or a single article from a general issue is acceptable, 

• the effect of the use on the market for the original. this can vary widely and is often most examine aspect explore in legal cases.

Fair use is one of many statutory rights to use copyrighted works.

Fair use is now encoded in the U.S. Copyright Act, which also includes many other provisions allowing uses of works in the classroom, in libraries, and for many other purposes. These statutes, however, are highly detailed, and the right to use works is usually subject to many conditions and limitations.

Posting an item to the learning management system (LMS) does not exempt an instructor from copyright regulations. Therefore, instructors are encouraged to follow copyright "best practices" as outlined in the Copyright Clearance Center’s publication, Using Learning Management Systems.

 Note that the guidelines suggested below are based on one interpretation of U.S. Copyright Law.