Watch this short video for an introduction to Fair Use...
What is Fair Use?
Fair use is definately unique to the United States. It is essentially a judicial creation that establishes certain laws which give a framework for using copyrighted material. "Fair use recognizes that certain types of use of other people's copyright protected works do not require the copyright holder's authorization. In these instances, it is presumed the use is minimal enough that it does not interfere with the copyright holder's exclusive rights to reproduce and otherwise reuse the work." Fair use was primarily created to allow certain types of use, using the protected work for things like commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education.
Understand that this does not mean that fair use is an exception to the copyright law as much as it is a "legal defense" if the copyright holder claims you infringed on his/her copyright. You will not know until you go to court and it is determined that you were within legal "fair use" parameters in your use of their protected material. This is the complicated and extremely grey area that fair use creates. We do, however, have some legal "guidelines." The following chart outlines some of the most commonly established guidelines.
Image: Jason Schultz http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdawg/400397763/
Understand that this does not mean that fair use is an exception to the copyright law as much as it is a "legal defense" if the copyright holder claims you infringed on his/her copyright. You will not know until you go to court and it is determined that you were within legal "fair use" parameters in your use of their protected material. This is the complicated and extremely grey area that fair use creates. We do, however, have some legal "guidelines." The following chart outlines some of the most commonly established guidelines.
Image: Jason Schultz http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdawg/400397763/