Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright and fair use are prominent topics in today’s society where mass pirating of copyrighted material occurs. A product is considered copyrighted “when something is put into ‘tangible form’ the creator of the work owns a copyright,” (Simpson, 2005). Such tangible forms include movies, books, music, and etc. (Simpson, 2005). Therefore, “copyright is the law of the United States that protects the works of authors, artists, composers, and other from being used without permission,” (Cyberbee, n. d.). This means that if one wishes to use more than a limited amount of a copyrighted material, they will need to ask permission from the owner of the copyright (Richter, 2003). Although, one needs to be careful, because the copyright sign does not necessarily need to be present for a work to be considered copyrighted (Cyberbee, n. d.). So how does fair use play a part in the copyright law?

Fair use allows “an author may make limited use of another author's work without asking permission,” (Nolo: Law for all, 2011). If one uses copyrighted material beyond fair use, it is considered an infringement. Infringement is basically a violation of the copyright law; although, it’s been stated that “the distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined,” (United State Copyright Office, 2009). To avoid the possibly of an infringement, there are guidelines that need to be followed under the fair use doctrine.

First off, there are four questions one must consider when using copyrighted material under the fair use doctrine: “purpose of use, nature of work, proportion/extent of the material used, and the effect on marketability,” (Newsome, 2000). Purpose of use refers to what a copyrighter material is going to be used for (i.e. education). The nature of the work deals with the type of material being used. For example, one needs to ask if the “copyrighted work published or unpublished, is the copyrighted work out of print, and is the work factual or artistic,” (University of Maryland University College [UMUC], 2011).

The next point to consider is the amount of copyrighted material being used. However, allowed amounts depend on the type and length of material. For instance, ten percent or thirty seconds of a song may be used (depending on which one is less) (Information Technology Evaluation Services: Public Schools of North Carolina, 1997).