Articles: https://pitt.libguides.com/copyright/caniuseit & https://pitt.libguides.com/copyright/caniuseit
“Fair use law is fluid, and hard for non-lawyers (and most non-IP lawyers, and even some IP lawyers!) to parse.”
In the article “Copyright for Instructors” written by Kris Shaffer, this line touches not just on Fairs use laws, but everything under the umbrella of Copyright, Fair use, and Public Domain. Though most of us generally know what copyright is, and how to avoid it, it can sometimes be hard to determine what copyright, fair use, and public domain Shaffer says in this quote. In the articles, Shaffer mostly discusses Fair use, when, and how to use the works of others. Shaffer provides us with a checklist to determine if we can reasonably use something and call it “Fair use”. Purpose, Nature, Amount, and Effect.
“The doctrine of Fair Use allows users of copyrighted works to reproduce and reuse copyrighted works in ways that are considered fair–such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.”
Can artists and other content creators challenge this doctrine of “Fair use”? As we noted earlier, as long as one of the 4 factors is in use, the content can be used under “Fair use” laws. These factors are purpose, Nature, Amount, or Effect. #1 The purpose and character of the use, such as whether it is commercial or for nonprofit educational purposes. #2 The nature of the copyrighted work, whether it is factual or creative in nature. #3 The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the entire copyrighted work. #4 The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. All of these can and are cited as valid reasons for “Fair use”.
“Most people will tell you that if your quote is less than 10% of the work, and either less than a full book chapter or less than 30 seconds of audio/video, you’re good.”
Even though “Most people” say this, is this an actual legal way of using “Fair use” laws? If we look back at the 4 rules of “Fair use”, we can see that this quote can be backed by rule #3 “The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the entire copyrighted work.”. As long as you don’t use too much of the work, you can use the content under the “Fair use” laws. Many people are always taking advantage of these rules in order to use other people’s content while adding something of their own to it, Fair use laws help protect both everyday people as well as these content creators, though some people still don’t like their content being “stolen”.
