Copyright

Defining Fair Use

Fair use (U.S.C. Title 17 § 107) is a legal limitation on the exclusive rights of copyright owners. Use of copyrighted works without the copyright owner’s permission for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research is not copyright infringement.

The Fair Use Policy of Carnegie Mellon University requires members of the University community to comply with U.S. Copyright Law. When a proposed use of copyright material does not fall within the fair use doctrine and is not otherwise permitted by license or exception, written permission from the copyright owner is required to use the work.

While courts are the final arbiter of whether a particular use of a copyrighted work is a fair use, Carnegie Mellon expects members of the University community to conduct a fair use analysis prior to exercising their fair use right. If, after conducting a fair use analysis, you determine your proposed use qualifies as a fair use, you may use the work. You should document your fair use analysis for future reference, as a sign of your good-faith effort to ascertain whether the use is a fair use. If, however, you determine your proposed use does not qualify as a fair use, you must either seek the copyright owner’s written permission to use the work or find an alternative work to use that is allowed by license or no longer protected by copyright.

Copyright law provides four factors that are used when determining if a use is fair: 

1. Purpose and Character

• What do I you want to do with the materials I plan to copy?
• Is it for commercial or educational purposes?

2. Nature of the Work

• Is the work I'm copying Fact or Fiction?
• Has this work been published or not?

3. Amount and Substantiality

• How much of the work do I need to borrow?
• Is what I'm copying the heart of the original work?

4. Effect of Use and Value

• How will my new work effect the copyright work?
• Will copying the work mean that the copyright holder will earn less money?

The most important factor is the purpose, and if the use is transformative. 

Conducting a fair use analysis entails consideration of:

The four fair use factors and their interpretation in relevant case law – see the Appendix to the Fair Use Policy of Carnegie Mellon University.

Applicable codes of best practices.

The Supreme Court has recognized that “the fair use defense affords considerable latitude for scholarship and comment,” but several caveats apply in practice:

• Regardless of whether a particular use qualifies as a fair use, with rare exception publishers require the copyright owner’s written permission for any third-party material included in a work to be published.
• Fair use likely provides sufficient protection for students including third-party materials in classroom presentations or submitted assignments, but the copyright owner’s written permission might be required for broader dissemination, for example, for posting the work on a website or depositing it in an open access repository, such as Carnegie Mellon’s KiltHub.