What constitutes Fair Use?
Answer
Fair Use is a copyright doctrine that states that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder. When trying to establish if an intended use is protected under the Fair Use doctrine, there are four official factors that should be considered:
- Purpose and Character of the use
- Nature of the copyrighted work
- Amount of the copyrighted work used
- Effect of the Use on the potential market for the work.
- Unofficially, there is also a fifth factor to consider, which is transformative use.