Copyright law is a carefully balanced system meant to encourage creativity as well as cultural and scientific progress. The law encourages authors by giving them limited control over certain uses of their works, and it encourages everyone (including authors) to use existing cultural and scientific material without permission, under certain circumstances, to engage in a wide variety of vital activities. Many parts of the law favor the freedom to use culture, but by far and away the most flexible, powerful, and universal user’s right is fair use. As you’ll see below: fair use is a right, fair use is vitally important, fair use is for everyone, and fair uses are everywhere.
Fair Use is for Everybody....Fair Use is Everywhere
Critics say that fair use is unpredictable, technical, legal stuff that the everyday person can’t understand or apply in daily life. In fact, fair uses are all around. Copyright law provides four factors for courts to consider in determining whether a use is fair:
FOUR FAIR USE FACTORS
The most important factor is the purpose: is the use transformative? Courts are much more likely to uphold a use as fair use if it is transformative, meaning that it adds something new, with a different character, expression, meaning or message, or function.
For more information and additional resources, please visit fairuseweek.org.