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Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials

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Saved by 32 people (-6 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-06-19


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Intro | Liability | First Steps | Rules of Thumb
Four-Factor Test | Permission

What is fair use?

We would all appreciate a clear, crisp answer to that one, but far from clear and crisp, fair use is better described as a shadowy territory whose boundaries are disputed, more so now that it includes cyberspace than ever before. In a way, it's like a no-man's land. Enter at your own risk.

Why is it like this and does it have to be this way? Is there no alternative to the vagueness of the "four factor fair use analysis," to fear of lawsuits and frustration with uncertainty? Maybe it is reasonable to simply throw up our hands and say, "What's the use?" After all, many legal scholars, politicians, copyright owners and users and their lawyers agree that fair use is so hard to understand that it fails to provide effective guidance for the use of others' works today. But the fact is, we really must understand and rely on it.

So wouldn't Guidelines help? Many people who think so recently gathered in Washington to negotiate Guidelines for Educational Uses of Digital Works in a two-year-long Conference on Fair Use ("CONFU"). For many, the Guidelines that emerged satisfied the need for clarity; but for some, considerable objections remained. Some CONFU participants and their constituents complained that the Guidelines were too narrow; others that they were too broad; or unfounded in the law; or too premature; or too long; or unclear; and so on. In the minds of many, the Guidelines asked the right questions, but for some, they provided the wrong answers

Highlighted by murraymar

Willful infringement means that you knew you were infringing and you did it anyway. Ignorance of the law, though, is no excuse.

Highlighted by nsmith24

It is called the good faith fair use defense [17 USC 504(c)(2)]. It only applies if the person who copied material reasonably believed that what he or she did was a fair use - as would likely be the case if you followed this Policy

Highlighted by nsmith24

. Is the work protected?

Highlighted by nsmith24

UT System has established Rules of Thumb for the following uses of copyrighted works:

Highlighted by clairefontaine

authorizes educational performances and displays of entire works (like poems, plays, musical works and movies), but it significantly distinguishes between what can be performed in the classroom and what can be transmitted

Highlighted by nsmith24

they authorize considerable performance activity without any need to refer to these Rules of Thumb or the Guidelines.

Highlighted by nsmith24