Fair Use

What is fair use?

(U. S. Code Title 17, Sec. 107)

Acceptable use by someone other than the copyright holder for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered include:

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
  
• the nature of the copyrighted work.
  
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
  
• the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

 Under terms of fair use, teachers may make one copy of:

• a periodical or newspaper article
• one chapter from a book
• a poem, essay or short story
• a chart, graph, diagram, cartoon, picture from a book, periodical or newspaper

Fair use applies to electronic as well as paper copies.

Generally speaking up to 10% of a work can be used, but must be cited. See the chart below for more clarification.

Motion Media	Text Material	Music, Lyrics and Music Video	Illustrations and Photographs
Up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less	Up to 10% or 1000 words, whichever is less; and entire poem of 250 words may be used but no more than 3 excerpts from a poet	Up to 10% but no more than 30 seconds of the music and lyrics , alterations to a musical work can’t change the basic melody or character of the work.	An entire photo or drawing may be used but no more than 5 images from the same artist, or when from a published collective work not more than 10% or 15 images, whichever is less