Fair Use in the United States is largely determined by an existing body of case law (previous judicial opinions on similar subjects), and so the best way to understand fair use is often to look at previous fair use cases. As fair use is analyzed in court, the existing body of case law gets larger, and it gets easier for both users and creators to understand the limits of fair use. The resources below are a great way to get introduced to the history of fair use case law and begin to follow current developments in case law!
Fair use is a longstanding and vital aspect of American copyright law. 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).
Sharing fair use success stories and best practices.
The BYU Copyright Decision Trail is an interactive tool for helping you make informed copyright decisions.
A tool to help you evaluate whether your intended use fits within the various exemptions in copyright for educational purposes.
Use this tool to help walk you through a Fair Use evaluation and generate a time-stamped justification for your records.
Created by the New Media Rights program.
Quick and easy slider for determining whether something may be in the public domain, from the ALA Copyright Advisory Network
Answer the genie's questions to determine whether a work is still protected by copyright and when it might enter the public domain. From ALA's Copyright Advisory Network.
Fair Use is a limitation on the exclusive rights of copyright holders (discussed in section 107 of Copyright Law) to help preserve First Amendment rights of free speech and promote conversation for purposes such as "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research."
When evaluating whether a use is fair, four factors are taken into consideration:
No one factor is decisive - all four factors are considered.
Additionally, under factor 1, whether or not the use is transformative has become an important consideration for Fair Use evaluations. Here are three questions to ask yourself to help determine whether your use is transformative (from the Framework for Copyright Analysis tab):
Use this checklist to help guide you through a Fair Use Evaluation.
Fair Use best practices for nonfiction authors - prepared by the Authors Alliance
Describes six uses of copyrighted still images that the Visual Resources Association believes
fall within the U.S. doctrine of fair use.
Fair use practices for authors, adaptors, and adopters of OER.
Addresses common situations where fair use applies for Art Museums, provided by the Association for Art Museum Directors
A collection of detailed analyses and best practices for specific fair use scenarios for: Academic & Research Libraries, Documentary Filmmakers, Online Video, Poetry, OpenCourseware, Media Literacy Education, Scholarly Research in Communication, Dance-related Materials, Media Studies Publishing, Teaching for Film & Media Educators, and Orphan Works Collections in Libraries, Archives, and other Memory Institutions.
From Stanford University Libraries
Fair use is an important right that provides balance to the copyright system and supports the constitutional purpose of copyright to "promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts." The Fair Use Fundamentals infographic explains what fair use is, why it is important, who uses fair use, and provides some examples of fair use.
A typical day in the life of a student shows the ways she constantly relies on fair use.
While fair use is of critical importance, there are many myths about what fair use is and how it can be used. Here are twelve myths and realities of the doctrine.
Where copyright law might otherwise act to prevent people from accessing knowledge, fair use permits everyone to use existing cultural and scientific material without permission, under certain circumstances. This fair use right promotes innovation, creativity, and scholarship, ultimately allowing new knowledge to be created and shared.