Intellectual Property and Fair Use

Staff Writer, Jul 19, 2005

The fair use doctrine, by definition, is an asset of the United States copyright law, which has developed over years out of various substantial court decisions

The fair use doctrine, by definition, is an asset of the United States copyright law, which has developed over years out of various substantial court decisions. The fair use doctrine grants the right to incorporate copyrighted material in another author’s work under certain specific conditions.

What is fair use?

Under Section107 of the U.S. copyright law, certain purposes are listed for which the reproduction of a particular work could be considered as “fair”. These purposes include:

• Criticism
• Comment
• News reporting
• Teaching
• Scholarship
• Research

In addition, Section 107 also clearly states four factors which need to be taken into consideration when deciding whether a particular use is considered as fair or not:

• The purpose and character of the use and whether the nature of the use is commercial or for non-profit or educational purposes
• The nature of the copyrighted work
• The amount of reproduced work
• The effect of the use on the potential market value for the copyrighted work

Copyright infringement vs. fair use

The definition of fair use is generally not as clear as the remaining components of intellectual property law. Similarly, the distinction when reproduced material is fair and when it is copyright infringement may also be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific guidelines or requirements when it comes to word count, number of lines, paragraphs or notes that may be safely taken without permission of the copyright owner.

Theoretically, it is always best to seek permission from the copyright owner, as simple acknowledging does not substitute a written authorization. As there are no guidelines or specific rules what would be a fair use rather than copyright infringement, consider the following examples that would most likely fall under fair use:

• Quotations of excerpts
• Criticism for purposes
• Quotations of short passages for scholarly use/technical work
• Parodies
• Reproduction of a damaged part by a library
• Reproduction by a teacher to illustrate a lesson
• Reproduction in a newsreel or broadcast

Intellectual property is sought by others as much as material goods of any value. Even though there are safeguards to protect intellectual property, it has become evident that sometimes the use of that material benefits the public and society as a whole. Only through various court cases, the Fair Use Doctrine has been developed and adopted and the copyright owner still receives credit as the true or producer or author.

Updated: HB