Fair Use: Home

Publishing. Presenting. Educating. Citing.

Fair use can apply to usage of others' content in any of these academic work scenarios, yet its rules for use are very subjective, because it depends on each individual circumstance for use. Is it legal? It can be. Is it lazy? It shouldn't be. Is it straightforward? It isn't.

This guide explains what fair use is and provides example scenarios and analysis resources to help you evaluate whether fair use can be acceptably applied for your own circumstances.

Many of the examples in the following pages are taken from the "Fair Use and Copyright for Online Education" guide by Andrée Rathemacher, Julia Lovett, and Angel Ferria of the University of Rhode Island Libraries, available under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Guide Contents:

• What is Fair Use? - Defines fair use as a copyright exception and sets up the context of when you may want to consider applying it
• Factor 1: Purpose - Explains the 1st factor of fair use
• Factor 2: Nature - Explains the 2nd factor of fair use
• Factor 3: Substantiality - Explains the 3rd factor of fair use
• Factor 4: Market - Explains the 4th factor of fair use
• More Resources - Provides resources to help you conduct a fair use analysis on your circumstance of use.

The Scholarly Communications office is happy to work with you. Contact us to schedule a consultation.

Suggested (but not required) citation: “Fair Use” by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is licensed under CC BY 4.0