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Go Ahead And Use That Copyrighted Material, It's Fair Use!
By Stephen Bucaro
Many people would like to use a picture or some textual information they found on
the Web, but they assume that copyright law prevents them from doing so. The
copyright law provides a "fair use" exception that permits you to legally use
copyrighted material for many purposes.
You can legally use copyrighted music, pictures, and textual information that you
find on the Web for purposes such as critical review, news reporting, teaching or
training materials, or a research report. This type of use is not a copyright infringement.
Copyright law does not precisely define fair use. Determination of whether a use is
fair use is made on a case-by-case basis, determined by the following factors:
 The purpose and character of the use.
Examples of fair use are quoting passages for a critical review, a news report, a
parody or satire, to illustrate a lesson, or a research report.
Fair use is very liberal for non-profit educational purposes. But using copyrighted
material in for-profit training materials is much more restricted. In this case, you
need to get permission to use the material from the copyright owner.
The use of a copyrighted character in a parody of the performance that the character
appears in is fair use. Don't use a copyrighted character to parody a different topic.
The nature of the copyrighted material.
Fair use is very liberal when quoting factual material in editorials, news reports,
and research reports. Using quotes from non-fictional or creative material is much
more restricted. In that case, stick to short quotes for critical review, or get
permission to use the material from the copyright owner.
The portion used in relation to the material as a whole.
Use of only a small portion of a copyrighted work for the purposes mentioned above
is usually fair use. The part of the material you use should also be only a small
portion of the new work you are creating.
Make sure that the small portion that you are using is not the most significant part
of the copyrighted material. Even though the part you use may be only a small portion
of the material, if it is the heart of the work, that would be infringement. There is
no clearly defined definition as to what portion of a work the use of is infringement.
The effect on the value of the copyrighted work.
Make sure that the part of the work you use does not make your new work substitutable
for the copyrighted work. If so, that is an infringement because it has reduced the
marketability of the copyrighted work.
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