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Bissell Library: Copyright and Fair Use

Fair Use Checklist

A helpful guide for determining if your use of a document falls under fair use.
CC-BY 2.0 License

 

About Fair Use - Copyright - Research ...

Helps users collect, organize, and document the information they may need to support a fair use claim and provides a time-stamped PDF document for the users' records. Developed by the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy.

Library Books on Copyright

Fair Use in Academia

The Fair Use Doctrine is probably the most important exception to copyright protections for educational settings, allowing many uses of copyrighted works for the purposes of teaching and research. The complexity of fair use and its importance in academia make it imperative that every member of Helena College understands how to make judgments concerning fair use.

What Determines Fair Use?
The following four factors are used to determine if a use is fair:

  1. The purpose of the use (e.g., commercial vs. educational)*
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work
  3. The amount of the material used (the greater the amount copied, the less likely it is fair use)
  4. The effect of use on the potential market for or value of the work

* Not all uses in an academic context are automatically considered fair use!

Review these Common Scenarios by Helena College Library to help you determine whether or not fair use is appropriate.

Public Domain

What is Public Domain?

A public domain work is a creative work that is not protected by copyright and which may be freely used by everyone.

More information available at Stanford University Libraries.

Information on Public Domain and Creative Commons from Mansfield Library at the University of Montana.

When is a work in the Public Domain?.

Works fall into the public domain for three main reasons:

1. the term of copyright for the work has expired;

2. the author failed to satisfy statutory formalities to perfect the copyright or

3. the work is a work of the U.S. Government.

As a general rule, most works enter the public domain because of old age. This includes any work published in the United States before 1923. Another large block of works is in the public domain because they were published before 1964 and copyright was not renewed. (Renewal was a requirement for works published before 1978.) A smaller group of works fell into the public domain because they were published without copyright notice (copyright notice was necessary for works published in the United States before March 1, 1989).

Use the Copyright Slider Tool to determine if a work is still protected by copyright.