Copyright is about balancing the rights of authors with the rights of the public to use the work without seeking permission or paying royalties. Under copyright, authors have the right to control the use of their work subject to exceptions permitted under the law. If the use exceeds such exceptions, then infringing on someone's copyright can result in damages and/or liability.

This is for educational purposes only.

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

• The purpose and character of the use (including whether it is transformative, commercial, non-profit, or educational)
• The nature of the copyrighted work
• The amount and substantiality of the portion to be used
• The effect upon the potential market for the copyrighted work

Because intention is a part of the consideration, only the user can make the initial assessment of whether their use is fair. There are numerous resources and checklists to help in your determination. Some are listed on the rights.

Fair use rules do not state a concrete maximum of usable material (not a number of words, or a length of time, or a percent of total). Fair use also does not mean that users can use/distribute any copyright material they want simply because Keystone College is an educational non-profit. We are bound by copyright law too.

There is a lot of subtlety in Fair Use interpretations, for more information see the Copyright Office’s Information on Fair Use, and Case Index.