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What is fair use?

What is fair use?

Fair use is an exception to the rights of copyright holders that allows users to copy small parts of copyrighted works under certain circumstances without seeking permission or paying royalties. Fair use is probably the most important exception for educational settings, allowing many uses of copyrighted works for the purposes of teaching and research.

To evaluate resources to see if they qualify for fair use, Messiah University teaching faculty should use Messiah University's Fair Use Evaluation Tool and keep the documentation the evaluation tool produces. Such documentation is important, providing evidence that you considered relevant issues in your evaluation.

The chart below summarizes fair use factors. Remember, fair use is a guideline, not a rule. When in doubt, obtain permission to avoid any potential legal challenges brought by copyright holders. If you have questions, contact your liaison librarian

For this factor...

It is more likely to be fair use if...

It is less likely to be fair use if...

Purpose
  • Not for profit
  • An educational use
  • A transformation rather than a mere reproduction of the original work
  • For a profit
  • Not an educational use
  • Not a transformation but a reproduction of the original work
Nature
  • A published work
  • A more factual work
  • Directly relevant to the educational purpose
  • An unpublished work
  • A more creative/original work
Amount
  • Only small portions relative to the whole work are used
  • Directly relevant to the educational purpose
  • Only the amount required to meet the educational purpose is used
  • Substantial portions or the entirety of the work are used
  • The "heart of the work" is used
  • Not directly relevant to educational objectives
Market
  • Of little economic impact
  • Of direct economic impact on an existing or potential market for the work (e.g. could replace the sale of the copyrighted work)

Additional resources for fair use