Celebrate Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week February 24-28

Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week is an annual celebration of the important doctrines of fair use and fair dealing. While fair use and fair dealing is employed on a daily basis by students, faculty, librarians, journalists, and all users of copyrighted material, Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week is a time to discuss the opportunities presented, celebrate successful stories, and explain the meaning of fair use.

What is fair use?

Fair use is a legal exemption to the exclusive rights of copyright holders. It is determined on a case-by-case basis in consideration of the following four factors:

1. The purpose and character of your use
   1. Nonprofit, educational, scholarly or research use favors fair use
   2. Transformative use (repurposing, re-contextualizing, using the work for a new purpose) favors fair use
2. The nature of the copyrighted work you are using
   1. Using published, fact-based content favors fair use
3. The amount of the work you are using
   1. Small or less significant amounts favor fair use
   2. Using only the amount needed for a given purpose favors fair use
4. The effect of your use on the market for or value of the copyrighted work
   1. If there would be no effect, or it is not possible to obtain permission to use the work, this favors fair use

In most academic uses, two questions are most relevant for a fair use analysis:

1. Does the use transform the material, by using it for a different purpose?
2. Was the amount taken appropriate to the new purpose? (Did you only take the amount you needed for your purpose?

If you can answer a clear ‘yes’ to both questions, you have a strong fair use case (in general).

Learn more about fair use, creative commons, copyright, public domain, and other licensing information in our Open Educational Resources Guide.

Learn more about Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week on the official event website.

Contact

Jessica Ryan, Scholarly Communications Librarian: jryan@smith.edu