The Fair Use Act

The "Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing United States Entrepreneurship Act of 2007" (FAIR USE Act) was a proposed United States copyright law that would have amended Title 17 of the U.S. Code, including portions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to "promote innovation, to encourage the introduction of new technology, to enhance library preservation efforts, and to protect the fair use rights of consumers, and for other purposes."



The distinction between what is fair use and what is infringement in a particular case will not always be clear or easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.



The following "uses" are generally deemed o.k. under the act:

· Criticism and Comment quoting or excerpting a work in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment.

· News Reporting summarizing an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report.

· Research and Scholarship quoting a short passage in a scholarly, scientific, or technical work for illustration or clarification of the author's observations.

· Nonprofit Educational Uses photocopying of limited portions of written works by teachers for classroom use

· Parody that is, a work that ridicules another, usually well-known, work by imitating it in a comic way.

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Education and Fair Use Act:

Educational use and personal use (see #1 under Four Factors, above) cover most classroom uses of copyrighted work. However, the web and the desire to share or publish students’ work make it easy for teachers and students to cross the line from fair use into copyright violation. As a guideline, consider educational use to cover only what happens within the confines of your classroom (or distance learning environment).
What is not educational use. To republish or publicly perform a work does not fall under fair use. For example, a student may use a copyrighted image in a multimedia presentation to the class, but may not post that presentation to the web where anyone could see it. An English class may act out parts of a play as they study it, but may not give a public performance.