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type-overview status-publish hentry" itemtype="http://schema.org/WebPage" itemscope> <div class="inner-wrapper"> <header> <div class="navigation"> <nav id="pagination-simple-top" class="pagination pagination-simple" role="navigation"> <div class="nav-next"><a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/" title="What Is Fair Use?">Next Page</a></div> <div class="nav-previous"><a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/trouble-spots/" title="Public Domain Trouble Spots">Previous Page</a></div> </nav> <div style="clear:both;"></div> </div> <h3 class="entry-title" itemprop="name">Fair Use</h3> </header> <div class="content" itemprop="articleBody"> <div class="entry-content"> <p>Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. For example, if you wish to criticize a novelist, you should have the freedom to quote a portion of the novelist’s work without asking permission. Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work.</p> <p>Unfortunately, if the copyright owner disagrees with your fair use interpretation, the dispute may have to be resolved by a lawsuit or arbitration. If it’s not a fair use, then you are infringing upon the rights of the copyright owner and may be liable for damages.</p> <p>The only guidance for fair use is provided by a set of factors outlined in copyright law. These factors are weighed in each case to determine whether a use qualifies as a fair use. For example, one important factor is whether your use will deprive the copyright owner of income. Unfortunately, weighing the fair use factors is often quite subjective. For this reason, the fair use road map can be tricky to navigate.</p> <p>This chapter explains the various rules behind fair use principles. To help you get a feel for which uses courts consider to be fair uses and which ones they don’t, several examples of fair use lawsuits are provided at the end of this chapter.</p> <h2 class="visuallyhidden">Ignore Heading – Content</h2> <h3 class="visuallyhidden">Ignore Heading – Sub heading content</h3> <h4 class="visuallyhidden">Ignore Heading – Sub table content</h4> <aside class="callout"> <h5>Related Topic</h5> <p>For educational fair use guidelines, see Chapter 7, which deals with academic permissions.</p> </aside> </div> </div> <footer> <nav class="overview-toc" id="overview-toc"><h4>In this Section:</h4><ul><li class="current"><a href="/overview/">Copyright Overview (NOLO)</a><ul><li class="current"><strong>Fair Use</strong><ul><li><a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/">What Is Fair Use?</a></li><li><a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/">Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors</a></li><li><a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/cases/">Summaries of Fair Use Cases</a></li><li><a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/disagreements-over-fair-use-when-are-you-likely-to-get-sued/">Disagreements Over Fair Use: When Are You Likely to Get Sued?</a></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></nav> <div itemtype="http://schema.org/Book" itemscope> <p> The content for the Copyright and Fair Use Overview section is from <span itemprop="copyrightHolder" itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization" itemscope> <a href="http://www.nolo.com/" itemprop="url"><span itemprop="name">NOLO</span></a></span>, with much of it taken from the book <a itemprop="url" href="http://www.nolo.com/products/getting-permission-riper.html"><span itemprop="name">Getting Permission</span></a> (October <span itemprop="copyrightYear">2019</span>) by <span itemprop="author" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope><a href="/author/richstim" itemprop="url"><span itemprop="name">Richard Stim</span></a></span>. Thanks! </p> </div> <div class="navigation"> <nav id="pagination-simple-bottom" class="pagination pagination-simple" role="navigation"> <div class="nav-next"><a href="/overview/what-is-fair-use" title="What Is Fair Use?">Next Page</a></div> <div class="nav-previous"><a href="/overview/trouble-spots" title="Public Domain Trouble Spots">Previous Page</a></div> </nav> <div style="clear:both;"></div> </div> <div style="clear: both;" class="shortbio" itemprop="author" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope> <div class="author-image"> <a href="http://www.craftslaw.com/" rel="external nofollow" title="Visit Rich Stim’s website" class="snap_noshots"><img itemprop="image" src="/avatars/richstim.jpg" class="avatar avatar-60 avatar-default" height="60" width="60" style="width: 60px; height: 60px;" alt="avatar" /></a> </div> <h2 class="author-name" itemprop="name"><a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/author/richstim/" class="url fn" rel="author">Rich Stim</a></h2> <p class="author-description" itemprop="description">Attorney at law, Nolo author, LinkedIn Learning Instructor, Blogger — <a href="http://dearrichblog.blogspot.com/">Dear Rich: A Patent, Copyright and Trademark Blog.</a></p> <ul class="author-links"> <li class="website"><a href="http://www.craftslaw.com/" rel="author" itemprop="url" class="website" target="_blank" title="Visit Rich Stim's Website">Website</a></li> <li class="twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/dearrichblog" rel="author" itemprop="url" class="twitter" target="_blank" title="Follow @dearrichblog on Twitter">Twitter</a></li> <li class="linkedin"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-stim-20803198" rel="author" itemprop="url" class="linkedin" target="_blank" title="Connect with Rich Stim on LinkedIn">LinkedIn</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="visuallyhidden"> <div class="published-date"><span class="published-date-label">Published on:</span> <time datetime="2013-04-04T15:43:02-07:00" class="post-date published" itemprop="datePublished" pubdate>April 4, 2013</time></div> Updated: <time datetime="2021-11-25T13:35:17-08:00" class="updated" itemprop="dateModified">November 25, 2021 1:35 pm</time> </div> </footer>   <p class="nocomments">Comments are closed.</p> </div> </article><div id='avatar_footer_credit' style='display: none;'>Avatars by <a href='http://www.sterling-adventures.co.uk/blog/'>Sterling Adventures</a></div> </section> <aside class="secondary-content sc-1" id="sc-1"> <h2 class="visuallyhidden">Secondary Content</h2> <div id="custom_html-2" class="widget_text widget widget_custom_html"><span class="widget-title"> </span><div class="content"><div class="textwidget custom-html-widget"><iframe width="200" height="143" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BDLTOwoSRNg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><strong>What's Next for Fair Use After Google v. Oracle?</strong><br /> Panelists Tom Goldstein and Professors Peter Menell, Pamela Samuelson and Sean O'Connor discuss the implications of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Google v. Oracle, and how it may affect other cases where fair use and copyright are in play.<br /> <em>Presented by the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology</em></p></div></div></div> <div id="recent-posts-3" class="widget widget_recent_entries"> <span class="widget-title">Recent Posts</span><div class="content"> <ul> <li> <a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/2021/06/10/code-of-best-practices-in-fair-use-for-open-educational-resources-oer/">Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources (OER)</a> <span class="post-date">June 10, 2021</span> </li> <li> <a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/2021/06/07/new-legislation-the-case-act/">New Legislation: The CASE Act</a> <span class="post-date">June 7, 2021</span> </li> <li> <a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/2019/01/30/celebrating-the-unfreezing-of-the-public-domain/">Celebrating the unfreezing of the public domain</a> <span class="post-date">January 30, 2019</span> </li> <li> <a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/2017/04/11/stanford-copyright-fair-use-key-overview-updates/">Stanford Copyright & Fair Use – Key Overview Updates</a> <span class="post-date">April 11, 2017</span> </li> <li> <a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/2017/02/19/future-libraries-need-first-sale-ebooks/">Future of Libraries – Need First Sale for ebooks</a> <span class="post-date">February 19, 2017</span> </li> </ul> </div></div></aside> <aside class="secondary-content sc-2" id="sc-2"> <h2 class="visuallyhidden">Secondary Content</h2> </aside> </div> </div> </div>  <footer id="footer"> <h2 class="visuallyhidden">Contact Information</h2> <div class="inner-wrapper"> <div class="sponsored"> <p> This site is sponsored by <a href="https://library.stanford.edu/">Stanford Libraries Home</a>, <a href="https://www.justia.com">Justia</a>, <a href="http://www.nolo.com/">NOLO</a>, <a href="http://blog.librarylaw.com/">LibraryLaw.com</a> & <a href="http://www.onecle.com/">Onecle</a>. </p> <div class="sponsors"> <span><a href="https://library.stanford.edu/"><img src="/jresources/images/logo-stanfordlib-w.gif" alt="Stanford Libraries Home"></a></span> <span><a href="https://www.justia.com/"><img src="https://justatic.com/v/1/branding/logos/justia.svg" alt="Justia Law & Legal Internet Resources" width="100"></a></span> <span><a href="http://www.nolo.com/"><img src="/jresources/images/logo-nolo-w.gif" alt="NOLO - Law Books, Legal Forms & Legal Software"></a></span> <span><a href="http://blog.librarylaw.com/"><img src="/jresources/images/librarylaw_logo.jpg" alt="LibraryLaw.com"></a></span> </div> </div> <nav id="footernav"> <h2 class="visuallyhidden">Footer Navigation</h2> </nav> <div class="copyright"> <div> <img src="/jresources/images/su_seal.gif" width="36" height="35" alt="seal"> <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/"> <img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://licensebuttons.net/l/by-nc/3.0/us/88x31.png"> </a> </div> <p> © <span class="copyright_year">2005–2024</span> The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 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