Of the four factors in a Fair Use defense, Factor 4 is the most easy to understand, and it is the second most important after Factor 1. Did the unauthorized use of the copyrighted work diminish the copyright holder’s ability to make money from the work? This could happen because the unauthorized use ruined the […]

Factor 3, the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, addresses how much of a copyrighted work was copied? If you included excerpts from an existing book in your new book, did you use a paragraph? a page? a chapter? multiple chapters? The larger the portion […]

The nature of the copyrighted work factor analyzes whether or not the copyrighted work is fact or fiction (factual versus creative in regard to photographs) or well-known versus obscure or unpublished. To understand this factor you must understand two things: 1) copyright law was enacted to protect creative works, and 2) facts by themselves cannot […]

The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes The first factor is considered the most important of the four Fair Use factors, with more emphasis now put on the purpose and character of the use rather than its commerciality. But what […]

Fair Use is part of Title 17 and is outlined in Section 107. It allows a copyrighted work to be used in certain circumstances without permission from the copyright owner. The idea behind Fair Use is to nurture the creation of new works, some of which may need to borrow from existing works. For example, […]