Fair Use? What's That?

Fair use is a limitation on the exclusive rights of copyright holders; it allows members of the public to make certain uses of copyrighted material. Copying an article for personal study or research is considered fair use. Quoting from a work for a review or for criticism is also considered fair use.

In addition to individual fair use, instructors can also use fair use to provide limited amounts of copyrighted material to their classes without having to request permission or pay licensing fees. Any material copied (or scanned) for a class must be evaluated against the 4 factors of fair use. This sort of fair use applies to classes in non-profit, educational institutions only.

For more information, see our Fair Use page.