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- Humanities LibreTexts - Fair Use (Oct. 17, 2026)
Fair use
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What is fair use in copyright law?
Fair use, a key part of copyright law, allows copyrighted material to be used without the owner's permission under certain conditions, including news reporting, criticism, scholarship, and parody. It is a defense against copyright infringement claims, but it is not absolute because the doctrine is open to interpretation, which leads to different court decisions about what is allowed.
The Copyright Act lists factors determining fair use:
* The purpose and character of the use, including commercial or nonprofit educational use.
* The nature of the copyrighted work.
* The amount and substantiality of the portion used.
* The effect on the potential market for the copyrighted work.1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Why is fair use important?
Fair use is an important legal doctrine within copyright law that allows the use of copyrighted material without permission from the owner under certain circumstances. It supports freedom of expression, promotes education, and fosters creativity by permitting the use of copyrighted works for criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Fair use is determined by a four-factor test, including the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount of the portion used, and the effect of the use upon the potential market for the copyrighted work.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What kinds of activities are considered fair use?
Fair use is a legal principle in copyright law that permits the use of copyrighted material without the owner's permission under certain circumstances. It is not absolute and serves as a defense against copyright infringement claims.
Activities that generally qualify for fair use include criticism, scholarship, news reporting, and parody. The determination of fair use involves considering the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount of the portion used, and the effect on the potential market for the copyrighted work.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How do courts decide if something is fair use?
In copyright law, fair use is a legal principle that permits the reproduction of copyrighted material without the owner's permission under certain circumstances. These circumstances often include criticism, news reporting, scholarship, and parody.
To determine fair use, courts consider four factors:
* The purpose and character of the use, including whether it is commercial or for nonprofit educational purposes
* The nature of the copyrighted work
* The amount and substantiality of the portion used
* The effect of the use upon the potential market for the copyrighted workFair use is a defense against copyright infringement claims, but it is not absolute, and the doctrine is open to interpretation, which leads to variations in court decisions.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What are the four factors judges consider for fair use?
In copyright law, fair use allows the reproduction of copyrighted material without permission from the owner under certain circumstances, including news reporting, criticism, scholarship, and parody.
The four factors that U.S. judges consider to determine fair use are:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether it is commercial or for nonprofit educational purposes.
- The nature of the copyrighted work.
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How might fair use apply to videos, music, or memes shared online?
Fair use is a legal principle that allows the use of copyrighted material without permission from the owner under certain circumstances. These circumstances often include commentary, criticism, education, news reporting, research, and parody.
When sharing videos, music, or memes online, fair use depends on a four-factor test:
* The purpose and character of the use, especially if it's for commercial or nonprofit educational purposes.
* The nature of the copyrighted work.
* The amount and substantiality of the portion used.
* The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.Transformative works that add new expression or meaning to the original copyrighted material are more likely to be considered fair use than works that merely copy from the original. Fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis, and is not absolute.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Fair use, in copyright law, a legal doctrine allowing portions of copyrighted material to be reproduced in certain circumstances without the permission of the copyright owner. Circumstances that generally qualify for fair use protections include criticism, scholarship, news reporting, and parody. Although fair use serves as a legal defense against claims of copyright infringement, it is not absolute. The doctrine of fair use is broad and open to interpretation, leading to a variety of court decisions about what usages are permissible.
In the United States the doctrine of fair use has served as a defense against claims of copyright infringement since at least 1841, when a Massachusetts circuit court ruled, in Folsom v. Marsh, that the defendant had infringed upon the copyright of the plaintiff by publishing a book containing more than 300 pages copied verbatim from the plaintiff’s previously published work. The dispute, which concerned Pres. George Washington’s collected letters and other papers, helped to establish some of the factors that subsequent courts have considered in fair use cases: the nature of the copied work, the quantity of material copied, and the manner in which the alleged infringement affects the market for the copyrighted work. These defenses were part of U.S. common law until 1976, when a major revision of copyright law, the federal Copyright Act, codified the purpose of fair use doctrine and the four factors that determine fair use.
The first of the factors listed in the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §107) is “the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.” The language of the factor explicitly refers to the distinction between commercial and nonprofit educational use, but courts have also considered other characteristics in determining whether the factor applies in particular cases. Generally, transformative work that meaningfully changes or adds to the original is favored over simple reproductions. For example, the use of a magazine photograph as part of a collage or multimedia presentation would be considered more transformative than the simple reproduction of the photograph.
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The second factor is “the nature of the copyrighted work.” This factor often distinguishes between highly creative work, which is more likely to have its copyright enforced, and work that is more strictly factual, which is more likely to be covered by fair use. Courts have also been less likely to grant fair use protections for copying unpublished works, in deference to the right of authors to determine when their works are first published.
The third factor is “the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.” While there is an exactly defined limit to the portion of a work that may be fairly reproduced, generally, the smaller the portion reproduced is, the more likely it is that the reproduction will be judged fair. However, reproducing even a small portion of a work may not be considered a fair use if the portion is the most important or valuable part of the work, such as the climax or a significant plot twist of a film.
Finally, the fourth factor is “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.” An unlicensed reproduction that competes directly with the original is less likely to be considered a fair use than one that does not. For example, in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith (2023), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Andy Warhol Foundation’s magazine licensing of one of Warhol’s silk screens of the pop musician Prince (titled Orange Prince), which was based on a photograph by Lynn Goldsmith, constituted an unfair use of Goldsmith’s photograph, in part because magazine publishers could purchase a license for Orange Prince in place of the original photograph. In contrast, Warhol’s famously banal paintings of multiple Campbell’s soup cans could not realistically serve as a substitute for the commercial packaging of cans of soup.
In many countries, fair use protections are not as broad as those provided in the United States, and the property rights of artists and creators tend to take precedence over the interests of scholars, educators, and others in using legally protected material. Fair use protections under international agreements also tend to be narrower than those in the United States.
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