A number of communities of practice have published Best Practices in Fair Use, which provide scenarios for how fair use rights apply to common educational situations:
This guide is intended to provide basic information and resources about copyright and does not constitute legal advice.
Unless otherwise noted, all content on the Copyright and Fair Use section of this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
Fair Use - Section 107
Identifies limitations on the exclusive rights of copyright owners for educational use of copyrighted materials.
Educational use is not always fair use. Use the four factors of fair use to determine whether your use of a work will fall under fair use guidelines.
The four factors for making a fair use determination include:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Copyright law does not provide exact guidelines for how much of a work you can post for a course reading. However, the Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copyright in Not-for-Profit Educational Institutions (see full text within Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians) provides the following definitions for brevity:
| Article from a periodical | Less than 2500 words |
| Book excerpt | Not more than 1,000 words or 10% of work (whichever is less) |
| Poetry from a collection | Complete poem if less than 250 words |
| Short story or essay from a collection | Less than 2500 words |
| Illustrations | One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture per book or periodical issue |
Note that these are not definitive guidelines but suggestions that must be weighed with the other three factors of fair use to make a proper determination.
Complete the Fair Use checklist to document your decision process, and demonstrate your attempts to apply a good faith effort to be in compliance with copyright law.
The fair use checklist was developed to help educators, librarians, and others to evaluate content using the four factors of fair use—purpose, nature, amount and effect. It can be used to document "reasonable and good-faith" attempts to apply fair use to materials used in courses.
When using the checklist, keep in mind that the four factors are not definitive or determinative. Instead, they are to be used to evaluate if your use tips the scales toward fair use, or against it. In the end, you must come to a conclusion you are comfortable with, and be satisfied with the reasoning you used to come to your decision.
Download a printable Fair Use Checklist for your files. By documenting your reasoning, you are preparing your argument for fair use in the event that your use is challenged in the future (in most cases, very unlikely).
| Purpose | |
Factors favoring fair use:
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Factors opposing fair use:
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| Nature | |
Factors favoring fair use:
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Factors opposing fair use:
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| Amount | |
Factors favoring fair use:
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Factors opposing fair use:
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| Effect | |
Factors favoring fair use:
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Factors opposing fair use:
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The Fair Use Checklist is used under a Creative Commons BY license from the Copyright Advisory Office of Columbia University, Kenneth D. Crews, director.
Additional online tools to help you make a fair use determination.