Copyright & Creative Commons

Fair Use permits the limited use of copyrighted material without permission in certain situations. Four factors are used to determine fair use. If fair use is determined to apply, you may use the material in your course without acquiring permission from the copyright holder.

1. Purpose and Character of the use: commercial use OR nonprofit educational purpose

2. Nature of the copyrighted work: published fact OR highly creative, imaginative work

3. Amount of the work: portion of the work used in relation to the work as a whole; substantiality or "heart" of the work

4. Effect on the market: use may not substitute for purchase if a copy is available at a reasonable price

The Fair Use Checklist

Columbia University Libraries provides a Fair Use checklist that can be helpful in determining if your use of copyrighted material is fair.  It is best practice to keep documentation of your Fair Use analysis. 

*This checklist is provided as a tool to assist you when undertaking a fair use analysis.  The four factors listed in the Copyright Statute are only guidelines for making a determination as to whether a use is fair.  Each factor should be given careful consideration in analyzing any specific use.  There is no magic formula; an arithmetic approach to the application of the four factors should not be used.  Depending on the specific facts of a case, it is possible that even if three of the factors would tend to favor a fair use finding, the fourth factor may be the most important one in that particular case, leading to a conclusion that the use may not be considered fair.

Microsoft Word - fairusechecklist2.doc (columbia.edu)

The Checklist and this introduction is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution License with attribution to the original creators of the checklist Kenneth D. Crews (formerly of Columbia University) and Dwayne K. Buttler (University of Louisville).  

The public domain refers to works that are either no longer copyright protected or belong to categories of works not protected by copyright law. Works in the public domain can be reused, modified, adapted or changed without asking permission.

How do works enter the Public Domain?

• The duration of the copyright has expired.  In the US, copyright of a book expires 70 years after the death of the author.
• The work was published prior to 1928.
• The work was produced by the US Federal Government.
• The work is not in a fixed or tangible form. A speech, lecture or comedy routine that hasn't been previously written down or recorded.
• The work did not include proper copyright notice prior to March 1, 1989. Prior to this date, notice of copyright was necessary for all published works.
• The work is not sufficiently original. This could include facts, news, lists or tables.