Knowra Fair Use Fair Use Fair use is a United States copyright doctrine that permits certain unlicensed uses of copyrighted works after case-specific analysis of statutory factors.
Four Factors of Fair Use : The statutory considerations courts assess when deciding whether a use of copyrighted material is fair. These factors supply the framework for evaluating purpose, nature, amount, and market effects.
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. : A 1994 Supreme Court case holding that a commercial parody may qualify as fair use. The Court rejected a categorical bar on commercial parody and emphasized transformative purpose.
Copyright License : Permission from a copyright owner to use a protected work under specified terms. A license authorizes use by consent, while fair use can permit use without permission.
Parody : A work that imitates another work to comment on or ridicule it. Parody may need recognizable borrowing to make its target clear, as in Campbell.
Copyright Act of 1976 : The United States federal statute that comprehensively revised and codified modern copyright law. Section 107 placed fair use in statute while preserving its case-specific character.
Transformative Use : A use that adds a new purpose, meaning, or message to existing material rather than merely repackaging it. A changed purpose can support fair use, though it does not decide the case by itself.
Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith : A 2023 Supreme Court case addressing fair use in licensing a silkscreen portrait based on a photograph. The decision focused on the specific commercial licensing purpose, limiting broad claims of transformation.
Public Domain : Works not protected by copyright, or whose copyright protection has expired or been relinquished. Public-domain use needs no fair-use justification because copyright restrictions do not apply.
Text and Data Mining : Computational analysis of large collections of text or other data to identify patterns and information. Researchers have argued that copying works for analysis can be transformative and non-substitutive.
Section 107 of the Copyright Act : The United States statutory provision that recognizes fair use and lists four nonexclusive factors. Its language is the central legal text governing the doctrine.
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