Fair use is a concept in U.S. law that recognizes that certain uses of copyright-protected works do not require permission from the copyright holder. (See Title 17, section 107)
The Fair Use Doctrine is probably the most important exemption to copyright protections for educational settings, allowing many uses of copyrighted works for the purposes of teaching and research. The complexity of fair use often makes it difficult to make judgements concerning fair use.
Review these Common Scenarios to help you determine whether or not fair use is appropriate. (Provided by California State University, Long Branch.)
The following four factors are used to determine if a use is fair:
* Not all uses in an academic context are automatically considered fair use!