Modified from Carrie Russell, Complete Copyright: An Everyday Guide for Librarians (American Library Association, 2004). Used by permission.
See section 7 of this guide, “The Fair Use Exemption,” for assistance in interpreting this checklist. An online tool called the Fair Use Evaluator provides an easy-to-use, online version of this checklist. Go to https://librarycopyright.net/resources/fairuse/index.php.
| Fair Use More Likely |
Fair Use Less Likely |
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|
Purpose:
- Teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use)
- Research or scholarship
- Nonprofit educational institution
- Criticism or comment
- News reporting
- Parody
- Transformative or productive uses (changes the work for new utility)
- Restricted access (to students or other appropriate group)
|
- Commercial activity
- Profiting from the use
- Entertainment
- Bad-faith behavior
- Denying credit to original author
|
Nature:
- Published work
- Factual or nonfiction based
- Important to favored educational objectives
|
- Unpublished work
- Highly creative work (art, music, novels, films, plays)
- Fiction
|
Amount:
- Small quantity
- Portion used is not central or significant to entire work
- Amount is appropriate to favored educational purpose
|
- Large portion or whole work used
- Portion used is central to work or the “heart of the work”
|
Effect:
- User owns lawfully acquired or purchased copy of original work
- One or few copies made
- No significant effect on the market or potential market for copyrighted work
- No similar product marketed by the copyright holder
- Lack of licensing mechanism
|
- Could replace sale of work
- Significantly impairs market or potential market for work or derivative
- Reasonably available licensing mechanism
- Affordable permission available for using work
- Numerous copies made
- You made it accessible on the internet or other public forum
- Repeated or long-term use
|
