Fair Use Fundamentals
Copyright law is a carefully balanced system meant to encourage creativity as

well as cultural and scientific progress. The law encourages authors by giving them
limited control over certain uses of their works, and it encourages everyone (including
authors) to use existing cultural and scientific material without permission, under
certain circumstances, to engage in a wide variety of vital activities. Many parts of the
law favor the freedom to use culture, but by far and away the most flexible, powerful,
and universal user’s right is fair use. As you’ll see below: fair use is a right, fair use is
vitally important, fair use is for everyone, and fair uses are everywhere.

Fair Use is a Right

Fair Use is Vitally Important
to the economy
Experts estimate that industries reliant on fair use contributed
$2.4 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2008–2009, or approximately
17 percent of the US GDP.1 In comparison:

Some people think fair use is a minor exception or
a marginal carve-out from the expansive protection

17%

FAIR USE

12%

MANUFACTURING

for authors, but fair use is a fundamental right.

6%
1%

RETAIL

AGRICULTURE

to innovation
JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG

the notorious r.b.g.

Fair use enables new technologies
and advancements, including new
products like DVRs and search engines.

Thanks to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme
Court said fair use is a “First Amendment Safeguard”.

to creativity
Without fair use, there would
be no parody, no critique and
commentary, no transformative
mash-ups, and no homage or
pastiche.

to scholarship
Imagine trying to prove your brilliant
theory about Ernest Hemingway
Like the First Amendment itself, fair use is broad, flexible,

without quoting Hemingway?

and responsive to change. That’s why fair use supports
the constitutional purpose of copyright: to “promote

the progress of science and the useful arts”.

1. CCIA, Fair Use in the US Economy, http://www.ccianet.org/wp content/uploads/
library/CCIA-FairUseintheUSEconomy-2011.pdf
2. US BEA Statistics, hhp://www.bea.gov/industry/gdpbyind_data.htm

 Fair Use is for Everybody

Fair Use is Everywhere
Critics say that fair use is unpredictable, technical, legal stuff that the everyday person can’t understand or apply in daily life. In fact,
fair uses are all around. Copyright law provides four factors for courts to consider in determining whether a use is fair:

FOUR FAIR USE FACTORS

the purpose
and character
of the use

the nature of the
copyrighted work

the effect of
the use upon
the potential
market

the portion used
in relation to the
copyrighted work
as a whole

The most important factor is the purpose: is the use transformative? Courts are much more likely to uphold a use as fair use
if it transformative, meaning that it adds something new, with a different character, expression, meaning or message, or function.
Here are just some examples of uses courts have specifically considered, upholding fair use in all of these cases:

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GOOGLE, TVEYES

NEW YORK TIMES

BRAILLE

CODE

Creating databases to make

Quoting and reprinting to

Making books accessible to

Copying a computer program

information searchable is a

report the news is a fair use.

the blind and print-disabled

to make new programs that

is a fair use.

work with it is a fair use.

fair use.

SOUTH PARK

ANDY WARHOL

DISH Network, VHS, VCR

BALTIMORE RAVENS

Making fun of culture in

Using old art to make new

Using recorders in your

Documenting history in a world

parodies is a fair use.

art is a fair use.

home to record television

rich with logos and cultural

and watch later is a fair use.

artifacts is a fair use.

3. "Baltimore Ravens logo" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baltimore_Ravens_logo.svg#mediaviewer/File:Baltimore_Ravens_logo.svgtm
4. South Park logo by VECTOR.ME

Commissioned by

Free to share and reuse

Design by

For more information and
additional resources, please
visit fairuseweek.org.