Fair Use

Related to the Copyright Policy established by the University of Fairfax, students and faculty must adhere to University policies with respect to Fair Use and Academic Integrity. These policies are as follows:

The law allows faculty members, in some circumstances, to copy and distribute portions of copyrighted works to students, without permission of the copyright holder, under an exception known as Fair Use.

Certain guidelines must be followed under the Fair Use exception.

Use of the material must be for educational purposes only; the material must not be sold for profit.
Only that portion of a work that is needed for educational purposes should be copied, up to a maximum of 10% of the work or one chapter, whichever is less.

Fair Use will not apply if the faculty member repeatedly uses the same material for the same course. In this case, permission must be sought by the copyright holder, and potential royalty obligations may be incurred.

Fair Use Finder

Fair Use Finder Under U.S. Copyright Law

The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall 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; and
the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Additional Resources

If you would like to learn more about copyright policies and fair use, the following resources can serve as helpful reference resources, as well as tools to help you determine if your use of copyrighted materials falls within the limits of fair use.

Copyright Basics

This is a link to a circular created by the U.S. Copyright Office summarizing current copyright law. Please use this twelve page summary of copyright law as a reference. This basic guide covers some important copyright law questions and concerns such as:

What is copyright?
Who can claim copyright?
Copyright and the national origin of the work
What works are protected?
what is not protected by copyright
Publication
How to secure a copyright
Notice of copyright
Copyright Policy-Fair Use Checklist by Columbia University

The Copyright Advisory Office of the Columbia University Libraries created this online guide to the Fair Use rules of the United States Copyright Law. All students and faculty should review this guide to ensure their proper use of copyrighted material in research papers and coursework.

Fair Use Helper

This form was designed by an online librarian to provide a guide on how to tell whether the use of a written resource by a student can be considered to be within the Fair Use section of U.S. Copyright Law. This is only a guide. Fair Use was written in a very vague manner and requires an attorney for a strict interpretation of the law or a court to make a decision on a case by case basis. This help is based on the following documents:

Fair Use checklist by Columbia University
U.S. copyright Law Section 107
American Library Association, “What is Fair Use?” and Fair Use and Guidelines